


Love + Fear

by ofathena



Category: Marvel Cinematic Universe
Genre: F/F, F/M, Reader-Insert, a collection of avenger oneshots, endgame spoilers, feedback appreciated!, most are set in or after endgame, so i posted this on tumblr but i wanted it to be here too, some nsfw
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-05-10
Updated: 2019-07-13
Packaged: 2020-02-29 10:06:37
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 17
Words: 26,198
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/18776095
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/ofathena/pseuds/ofathena
Summary: thicc!thor





	1. Handmade Heaven - Carol Danvers

Of all the people in the Avengers compound, Carol wondered how it was only her that found herself drawn to you as magnetically as she felt she was. Sure, you were friends with every single one of the on a level she sometimes couldn’t comprehend but none of them having dated her in the past or seemingly never even thought about it baffled her. You were the most ethereal of creatures, with an omnipresent smile and the drive to do real good that she admired more than any other Avenger’s motive. And that wasn’t to say any of their motives were lesser, however, you seemed to work more transparently than some of the others, with you being more environmentally focused the work you did was on a more global scale than Carol felt any of the others achieved after Thanos’ defeat.

 

Your work with not only humanitarian aid but on an environmental spectrum meant you were esteemed as Tony was in terms of philanthropy and it was after a huge press event for the opening of your latest charity program dedicated to promotion of marine life welfare and ending shark finning that Carol found you, curled up on one of the bigger couches, wrapped in one of her sweaters with a look on your face she could only describe as thunderous.

 

“Angel face, why do you look like Thor when he summons lightning storms?” Carol slipped onto the couch beside you, lifting you and the tangle of blankets into her lap with ease and though you made a grumbling sound at being moved, it doesn’t stop you leaning into her warmth.

 

To you, Carol smells vaguely like cinnamon and burnt sugar, the aftermath of having fire in her veins and it's the most comforting of scents, even when the world seems to be falling apart. You remember the first time you met her, yanked from the quantum realm in a blur of light brighter than anything else you’d ever seen. Then that light had become a woman, beautiful and fierce and with said light seeming to pulse within her skin and you’d known then that you wanted no other.

 

Now, with her arms secured around you and the scent of her burning forever invading your senses, everything should be perfect.

 

“Everything takes so long Carol. The push for environmental awareness, for global warming awareness, shouldn’t the aftermath of Thanos’ wrath be enough for people to realise we have problems that extend beyond Thanos’ madness? Like yes, he was wrong for what he did but we’re still managing to kill the planet, has no one learned anything?” You hated to agree with any part of Thanos’ logic but there was a part of you that could never shake that something in his sentiment had been on the right track though it had become so twisted in his hatred that it became unrecognisable for its truth.

 

“We can’t all be as smart as you baby girl,” Carol pressed a kiss to the soft expanse of flesh behind your ear and felt you shiver beneath her lips. Hugging you closer to her body, she enjoyed the soft warmth you omitted, the sweetness of the perfume that still clung to your throat dancing through her senses and she leaned to kiss your mouth, never mind the red staining your lips. You tasted like white wine and toothpaste, a combination that made her almost blink before you seemed to writhe in her arms, straddling her so as to gain better access to kiss her, your hands tangling up into her hair and you gave a teasing tug, eliciting something near to a moan from Carol, who rolled her hips beneath yours and you giggled, mood vanishing as you smiled at your love.

 

“I love you,” You murmur into her neck, having settled back into her side and Carol wrapped her arms around you again, dotting kisses across your forehead as she stroked gentle patterns into your hair, watching as your eyes began to slip closed and gradually, Carol found herself being lulled into sleep alongside you, the safety of having you within her arms guiding her into peaceful dreams.


	2. Superstar - Carol Danvers

Heads!” Carol whipped her head up just in time as you sent Clint barrelling past her, your teeth bared in triumph as it became clear you’d won the sparring match you and Barton had been engaging in for the better part of an hour. Carol, who along with Steve had been beating the absolute shit out of some punching bags, sent you a brief thumbs up, it wasn’t often that you were able to physically overpower Clint as it was too often that he managed to pull a reaction from you. It felt rather familiar to her own training, though your pride was somewhat less extensive than her own, especially with you and Clint having a more familial bond than most of the other Avengers. Most of the time he even visited the compound was in aid of seeing either Natasha or you, sometimes Steve but mostly his alliances lay with the adopted part of his family. Clint was dusting himself off, already teasing you as you began a victory chant, Steve having slowed to watch your antics with a smile and Carol looked over too, her eyes fond as she watched you.

There was just something about you. Whether it was the way you smiled, quickly and easily and oh so frequently, or even just the way your eyes lit up when you were happy, the way you laughed at everything and the way you made everyone feel at ease without even having to try, whatever it was Carol couldn’t help find but find herself smitten. She’d never really been about love at first sight but to be honest, the moment she laid eyes on you, she knew that there was absolutely no one else for her.

 

You had a chemistry, an aura about you that made everyone seem to feel quite drawn to you and in the beginning, Carol had blamed her feelings on that, insisting to herself that it was merely just a close friendship that she was after with you and for a while, Carol was content with lying to herself about her true feelings. Well, that was until you grabbed her hand one night at Rhodey’s birthday party and dragged her out onto the dancefloor to show the boys how it was done. There, under the lights and looking into your eyes as you danced slightly off-key to a song she didn’t know, Carol realised that there was no going back for her.

 

But she didn’t know if you felt the same, you seemed to treat her the same as you treated the others, with a closeness that was both comforting and in its own way, heartbreaking. Carol didn’t know, of course, she didn’t know first if you liked women or if you even liked her as anything more than a friend, a colleague and like hell was she going to ruin that relationship with feelings especially if they weren’t reciprocated.

 

It didn’t help that nearly all of the original Avengers had worked it out and thus seemed to have a lot of fun in teasing Carol relentlessly, originally about her little crush but now, further along the line, it was more based on her refusal to admit feelings and your obliviousness. Tony had been the one to openly figure it out, he was the most perceptive in that way though Carol reckoned Natasha had seen it long before Tony had sat her down and asked her when she was going to propose to you. Steve, Bucky and Sam, all three being the definition of soft jocks, had taken a little longer but they got there and as a trio, were much less annoying than Tony and Nat were, they were more invested in seeing you and Carol become endgame. Bruce still had yet to work it out for himself and though sometimes Carol thought Thor was also unaware until he made a comment that made Carol’s eyes narrow.

 

He was one of the less subtle of the group but you always seemed to think he was joking and never took anything he said seriously, luckily enough for Carol. Wanda was her greatest ally in the whole situation, the mind reader had caught her thoughts once when they were especially loud and had been quite helpful in telling Carol everything there was to know about you, the two of them had been friends since Wanda joined the Avengers and Carol remembered brief jealousy before Wanda had made it clear that though she did not mind women, you were her friend before anything else.

 

And then there was the whole nonsense of Carol having absolutely no sense at all around you, she became almost tongue-tied and never really knew how to act when you, in your eyes, openly flirted with her. She was never sure if you were simply teasing or if there was true affection behind your sweet words, whether the warmth in your eyes was something more or the way you watched her when you thought she wasn’t looking meant anything more than she could possibly hope. And sometimes you wondered, how someone so intelligent could be such a dumbass that they didn’t even recognise when someone mirrored their feelings. But you weren’t one to impose and decidedly wanted to allow Carol to work through it herself, you didn’t want to push anyone into a box. 

 

Everything began to change when Tony announced he would be hosting this year’s Avengers Anniversary, much to everyone’s relief as most of the remaining Avengers still remained at the compound with you, Sam and Clint being some of the few with property outside of the New York location, though Carol did still count Maria’s place as her own. Monica was beginning to frequent the compound too, her and Wanda were close friends and Monica enjoyed the challenge of training with someone who in theory could predict her movements. Stark Tower was a second home to most of the original Avengers, however, Carol, Shuri, Wanda, Peter and you were all much more accustomed to the freedom of the compound.

 

It was when Tony was declaring his hosting duties and the announcement that everyone was free to bring a partner as though it was not entirely sanctioned, he assumed everyone would make wise choices in the civilian department. Carol did not miss the way your face brightened and when it did, her heart plummeted, more aggressively than she had thought possible, sinking to the very soles of her feet. Something close to misery swelled in the pit of her stomach and Wanda threw her a pitying look as Carol worked to keep her face neutral. Decidedly, she’d ask Maria, she’d been wanting to reintroduce her and Fury for quite some time and she had an inkling that Maria and Rhodes would get along, though she wasn’t quite sure the age difference between them. Monica, she assumed, would be either on the invite list or Wanda’s guest, the two had become near inseparable which had been comforting to the cruel squeeze of jealousy Carol felt whenever she’d previously seen Wanda making you laugh.

 

Folding her arms over her chest in a defensive position, Carol made her way hurriedly back to the gym where hopefully, she’d get some alone time in which she could finally beat the shit out of something. And for about an hour, that’s exactly what she did, breathless and knuckles sore by the time she was through with punching, but as she was packing up, in they sprawled. You, followed closely by a spritely Sam and an almost reluctant Bucky, who Sam appeared in the middle of taunting.

 

“Oh hey, if it isn’t my favourite Captain. Heading off?” Sam held up a hand for a high five and Carol sparked him gently as their palms smacked together. You and Bucky were already joke-sparring and you flung Carol a warm smile before ducking beneath Bucky’s swung arm and the air shifted as he stumbled forward, the weight he’d flung into the punch overbalancing him and you laughed.

 

“Do you wanna step in and keep this fight from being unfair? She’ll kick his butt and I’ll have to deal with it for the next three days training with him,” Sam winked, speaking loudly enough that he caught both Bucky and your attention, earning a giggle from you and a grumble from Bucky, before with a shove, he collected Sam on the way past and the two of them tumbled onto the mats with heavy thuds.

 

“Powers or no powers?” Your voice was clear, the unease present in Carol unseen in you, who were aiming that soft smile at Carol still. It often deserted her that you were gifted in almost similar ways to her, but yours were less fireball related and more strangely god given. You had the uncanny ability to shift gravity on people, in that once when Carol was sparring with you, you had changed the gravity around her so that all she could do was lie flat, the pressure not entirely uncomfortable on her back but she could feel the power almost buzzing in your palms when you had cheerfully asked her if she’d prefer to not use powers. Changing earth weights was your most common tactic, occasionally you did it to one of the others, causing mayhem as things became too heavy or too light and sometimes things even floated, Steve had been annoying Carol a few days prior about how she never faced her feelings when he’d simply drifted away in a startled, space-junk-like hunk of supersoldier, your eyes gleaming from where you’d been curled up reading.

 

“No powers, I need the physical practise as much as you do,” Sam made a scoffing sound from where he and Bucky were still an oreo of limbs and Carol rolled her shoulders, choosing to ignore the snide sound and you smiled with an angelicness that made her relax a little more. Then she remembered she wasn’t supposed to be relaxed and raised her fists, swinging around just in time to dodge the blow you feinted. Carol realised it was a feint too late, you’d bet on her turning and swept her legs from under her and Carol hit the mat, rolling backwards to avoid you flinging her as you had done Barton days prior.

 

Pushing herself forward, she powered into you, using her slightly more substantial body weight against you and succeeded in forcing you backwards, towards the edge of the mat before you, like the spider monkey you were, wriggled from her hold, managing to collect her and send both of you tumbling. 

 

Carol landed on the mat solidly for the second time, but this time you came with her, the two of you a brief tangle of limbs and Sam let out a low whistle, causing Carol’s cheeks to brighten.

 

“Nice one Carol. Never took you for a bottom though,” Carol flinched, embarrassed at the sudden predicament and went to snap back at him but you moved faster before anything else could happen, Sam was slammed into the ceiling and then crumpling into a groaning heap on the mat, your teeth bared as you glared at your friend. He shook his head, chuckling softly before he met your furious eyes and caught the hurt within Carol’s.

 

“Okay, okay, bad joke. Apologies to both of you, now I’m going to go ice my shoulder before either of you decide to actually threaten me,” Bucky remained silent throughout the exchange, he didn’t trickle after Sam when he trudged out and Carol noticed how he watched the goings on, his eyes fleeting between you and Carol. He had something to say but it seemed it required waiting until you left because he didn’t speak up until you had slipped out after Sam.

 

“You need to tell her how you feel C, I reckon you’d be surprised at how she feels in return,” Carol ignored his words, turning her back on the supersoldier in an attempt to hide the way her face contorted in confusion and something she could only call hope warmed her cheeks.

 

That hope, however, began to dissipate when she learned you had a date for Tony’s bash and the crushing feeling she knew was unhappiness seemed to weigh even heavier on her shoulders every time she caught sight of you prior to the event, though she tried her hardest not to let her sadness permeate.

 

The fateful evening came quicker than she wished, Carol and Maria arriving fashionably late to the Stark Tower, mostly because Maria had been unable to find a park and refused to valet her beat up truck. Carol knew better than to argue, instead, she and Maria headed up to the Stark Tower in near silence, Maria having long since caught on to the reason for Carol’s mood. She had no comment for the situation, Carol was grown and though she was her best friend, Maria knew that Carol needed to work this one out herself.

 

You were already amongst it when they stepped out of the elevator, a dazzle of black silk and loose hair, curls of which framed your face in that sweet, angelic way Carol adored and then she saw the woman beside you. Tall, slender and traditionally beautiful, Carol couldn’t quite place her ethnicity as originally, she’d believed her to Japanese but something told Carol she might be Korean. She was elegantly put together, making Carol feel almost dishevelled in her red attire and when she caught her eyes, the woman smiled faintly in Carol’s direction, a secret smile and Carol saw red. It took everything in Carol not to hit her with a photon blast, her fingers even heating up as they itched to release their fire until you swung around, spotting Carol and her burning fingers and called out her name, beckoning her over as Maria smacked Carol’s shoulder lightly.

 

Carol tried to retain her composure as she all but sauntered over to you, well aware of the way you were watching her and the woman at her side turned away, speaking to Thor animatedly and Carol decided then and there, while your date was distracted, that it was now or never.

 

“Y/n. Hi. I’m in love with you. Just thought I ought to tell you,” Carol said before her brain could call a cease on the words that spilt from her mouth. You blinked, once and then you smiled, so broadly that Carol thought you might blind her with the whiteness of your teeth.

 

“You know, I normally don’t get many surprise confessions of love before the drinking has started, so I can safely assume this one is a true one. But if you must know, I am also quite in love with you too,” Your smile had grown shy and Maria rolled her eyes, high fiving a grinning Wanda on her way to the bar.

 

“Good. I mean now I guess we have a few options, number one is we decide this isn’t going to work, number two is we realise that maybe we’re going to fast-” Carol blinked as you press a finger to her lips teasingly.

 

“Number three is you and I get out of here in a few and you show me just how much of a top you really are,” You said in her ear, replacing your finger with your lips a moment later and Carol wondered briefly if there was anything sweeter than your kiss. Another thought came to her a moment later and she blushed pink, before snaking her arms around you and kissing you like she’d been meaning to for what felt like forever. And standing in your arms, locked in the kiss, she knew you were her forever.


	3. Believe in Love - Nebula

“Weak, that’s what you are!” Nebula nearly flinched away from the blow, her eyes snapping to meet ones so close to her own that for a moment, it seemed like they were. But these were darker, colder and knew not what she did.

 

“He killed them, he killed y/n. That’s what he does, he kills people and he took them for us, do you understand that?” The change that statement brought over the past Nebula’s face was instantaneous and fiercer than Nebula had dared hope, but she knew herself, truly. Gamora too had stiffened, her features tightening and her mouth had pressed into a thin line. Gamora had always been the more reluctant around their father and his grand plan and it showed, even back then. But the idea that their father had brought harm to you, even Nebula, who supported her father as no one else did, would choose you over him with little hesitation.

 

“He did what?” Past Nebula’s voice is slow, deliberate and quakes a fraction as she speaks, her eyes locked on Nebula with an almost painful fury staining her features. Nebula shook her head, hating the memories managing to dredge themselves up in her mind before she pressed the ocular transmitter, allowing Nebula to see for herself what she seemed unable to believe or even comprehend.

 

It hurt to look at you, all golden and beautiful on Titan, the most exquisite creature Nebula had ever encountered and she remembered how fierce you’d been, the way you’d gripped her hand in your softer one and the way you’d kissed her mouth with a sweetness she ached for. She loved you, she’d always love you, more than anything, more than anyone. You were the only thing she lived for some days, other than Gamora and the hope of getting her back and seeing you in the hologram emanated raw pain.

 

The others around you began to turn to dust and you were turning, confusion soaking your delicate features and Nebula contained the sob that burned up her throat. You were so unknowing, so calm and she heard her own voice, calling your name as your eyes found hers and she could see in your gaze that you knew what was going to happen and it was okay.

 

“I love you,” You whispered, fingers stretching out towards Nebula who was running, running as fast as she could but by the time she reached you, you were already collapsing into a cloud of dust that stained Nebula’s skin for days. Past Nebula flinched at the sight of you vanishing and Gamora had a hand pressed to her mouth, a terrible sadness hanging over the cell for a brief moment after the hologram flickered off. Nebula curled her fingers tightly around the pendant at her throat, a shard of a stone you’d called amethyst and squeezed the cool surface of it, the familiar shape and temperature comforting until she remembered you wearing it in your rings and it was as though she’d been stabbed in the gut. You were effervescent, the half Kree in you giving you the swift graces of a balanced fighter though the fierceness you possessed seemed to be simply of you. She missed your humour, the tangible sweetness that frolicked over your face when you kissed her and the brightness when she would kiss you. Nebula had never known love like she knew how she loved you, you were everything she wanted and needed and to have spent five years without you was a test to the strength of her will.

 

“Go,” The Past Nebula’s voice is stronger than Nebula knows she’s feeling, her past self is shaking and she can see the tremors in her own hands, the joints rippling as if under an unseen energy current. And then Nebula is moving, and she’s not alone, her sister, who is not truly her sister is by her side and the two of them plunge into battle side by side.

 

When you lept from the portal, blades flashing and eyes burning with cold fire, Nebula all but stopped dead. Staring at you, even from a hundred feet away, she could make out the tiny freckles like ink on your nose and the messy eyeliner smudged beneath your eyes and she smiled. Gamora looked almost startled, unused to her sister showing so much affection until she caught sight of you, whirling twin swords into Thanos’ cretins in a tornado of movement. You slowed, releasing the blades from the torso of one of them as you caught sight of Nebula and Gamora, your face scrunching in disbelief before you were moving, running and tumbling towards them and Nebula pushed herself into a run as well. The two of you collided in a violent, passionate kiss, Nebula raking fingers down the familiar curve of your back as she pulled you tightly to her chest, the familiarity of holding you making tears leak from her eyes and you kiss them away, the sweet warmth of your mouth something she wasn’t aware she missed so violently.

 

“Okay lovebirds, we gotta move!” Gamora yells, breaking the moment and the two of you separate, eyes barely leaving the other as she grips your hand in hers, noting the sparks that linger in your gaze and knowing that once this is over, the two of you have a lot of catching up to do.

 

“Let’s go kill some Outriders babe!”


	4. Karma - Loki (NSFW)

When he knocks on your door, five years after he’d died in this reality, he almost doesn’t expect you to answer. There’s a part of him, a part he can’t quite fight back, that hopes for your sake, that you’ve moved on. That someone else is making you happy but then there’s another part of him that hopes you haven’t because you’re his, you’ll always be his.

 

He’d watched you fight at his brother’s side to defeat Thanos, the past version and the one that had murdered him and through the Tesseract, he’d been able to slip back into this reality, though it had taken some coaxing. But you had won, you had all won but he knew you weren’t taking it well. Stark had been your mentor, your father figure and when he’d taken you the first time, it had been Stark that had put him on his ass for even touching you. Loki smiled, despite himself as he recalled how violently you’d opposed him taking you, only for you to be giving him those soft eyes that meant a lot more than you dared say out loud the next time you’d seen each other on Asgard, you were a dear friend of Jane’s and Thor hadn’t seen any reason why not.

 

You’d been with his mother when she’d died and nearly not survived yourself, the slash of the Dark Elf’s blade still carved into your cheek and he knew that no matter how much he or anyone told you it was beautiful and unnoticeable and it was strength, he knew you hated it, but not because of that. You knew it reminded him of his mother and every time he looked at you, he saw that you hadn’t been able to protect her. But Loki didn’t blame you, he couldn’t. He’d been the one to stumble across the two of you, he’d felt somewhere deep within him that something was wrong and had managed to break from his prison, this determination to be free. He’d found Frigga dying and you not far behind, blood leaking from your eyes and cheek as you drowned in it. He could never forget that horror, the terror that had wrung him to his very bones at that sight, you lying in a pool of your own blood, a slash across your throat and then he’d seen his mother. She’d found his eyes with her own, the blood spilling from her chest not as fast as that welling from you but he knew. At that moment, he’d known Frigga wouldn’t survive. But she’d raised a shaky hand, and with the familiar gleam of her magic, he’d seen her begin again to try to heal you and he’d fallen to his knees beside you, scrabbling desperately at your face and turning you over, unable to do anything, feel anything other than pain.

 

When you’d gasped, not a gurgle or a splutter but a gasp of air, the relief that had flooded him would have drowned a mortal. He had brought close to him, tightly gripping you to his chest as you seemed to struggle to get your breath back and Loki saw his mother’s body grow limp over your shoulder, the faintest of smiles of Frigga’s face and he’d mourned silently though his grip on you had never slackened. The guards had found them not long after, you soaked in blood and Loki also, your blood smeared over him in dark streaks and you were shaky on your feet as they’d helped you up. Odin had allowed him to accompany you to the healer and wait there with you, your blood still staining his hands and you’re shivering as they work on you, your fingers slack in Loki’s and he’s swallowing tears. His mother was lost, never to return and his little mortal was on the brink of mortality, the blue beneath her eyes deep and dark and if he had a heart, truly he knew it would have been broken. But maybe it was and maybe he did because the way he’d felt that night, leaving you pale and broken looking on the pallet had been the hardest thing he’d ever done.

 

And now he stood outside your door, waiting and hoping that you’d answer it and if you did, that it would be the real you, his you that did so. He missed you, it had been a long time since he’d seen your face and he desperately craved those familiar features, the Tesseract’s temperamental state meant it had been easiest for him to exit at this point in this timeline and though he knew you were still living, he wasn’t sure as to if you were still living here or had finally moved from New York.

 

When the door swings open, you’re not alone. A startlingly blue woman and a dark-skinned man stare out at him from either side of you, whose face is draining of colour and you stumble backwards, the blue woman gentle as she catches you, pushing you back to your feet as all Loki can do is stare at you.

 

“Loki,” His name bursts from your lips like an explosion and the dark-skinned man tenses, clearly recognising the name but the blue woman simply eyes him, he is not a threat in her eyes as she turns to the man and jerks her head violently.

 

“Rhodey, let’s go. Y/n can handle this. We’re just down the block,” That last statement is more for Loki than it is for you but Loki and you both nod faintly at her words, both woman and man making sure to bump shoulders with him on the way out before the door closes behind them and it’s just the two of them.

 

“How- what are you- Loki what the fuck?” He smiled then, his sweet flower had always had a filthy mouth and as he nears you, you don’t shrink back, seemingly drawing yourself closer. Your hands, familiar in every way with their softness matched with the callous’ from the weapons you wield, your face is the same, dappled in the warm hallway light and you are still his, as he has always been yours.

 

“My love, I come with the same memories I always had but from a different point in time. The me you saw killed was another version of me, from another universe whom I allowed to take my place whilst I, with the tesseract from a different past, waited and watched. You see my love when your dear Avengers altered the past, most weren’t affected but my mother warned me you see and I knew to expect the first of the ripples in my past self, which I wasn’t aware of until now. I knew to send the other Loki to the Grandmaster and I knew to keep a hold of this, other Tesseract so that I could make my way back to you,” You’re crying now, tears hurtling down your cheeks briskly enough that when he kisses them away, they seem to be instantly replaced. His mouth wanders down your cheek, finding your mouth and then you’re wrapping your arms around him tightly, your strength a little surprise that makes Loki’s mouth curl up in pride. He kisses your mouth with a fierceness that pinks your cheeks and has your fingers sliding up to toy through his hair and you tug at a few strands teasingly.

 

“I missed you as the sun misses the moon, my heart, Thor and I mourned for you after he returned to Earth. I couldn’t believe that you were so crazy as to have brought a dagger against Thanos, now I understand why,” You shudder as his mouth descends along the column of your throat but the fury welling inside you is harder to quell.

 

“But where were you? I needed you and you were gone, believed dead and you let me believe that for five years! Thanos was gone for those five years, posing no threat to you but-” His fingers stroke through your hair, calming you as though you need someone to keep you controlled. Your eyes blaze as his fingers find themselves under your chin and he tilts your head back to look at you, really look at you.

 

“Something happened to me, my love. Something I can’t quite explain but I woke up not long ago and some time had passed, I believed it to be the fault of my Tesseract-” He stops upon seeing the look of dawning realisation upon your face and he catches your cheeks in his palms, eyes roving your expression but you’ve long since learned to keep your expressions neutral of anything he can draw away.

 

“You were dusted; Thanos’ snap turned half the population to dust and you must have been within the vicinity to have been dusted, he wiped out over three billion people and then when we made the new gauntlet, Bruce brought them all back, he brought you back,” You lunge into his arms again, shaking slightly as you do so and he wraps you up in his arms, his mouth warm against the top of your head.

 

“I’d never truly leave you little one,” He murmurs, his body almost warm as its flushed against you and you release your grip on him briefly, very aware of the height difference between the two of you as you look up at him and then you’re on the balls of your feet, leaning up to kiss him again but this time, there’s an urgency, a true fire taking over you in a surge straight from your belly up. His hands are brushing down your waist and you’re very aware of them as one finds your lower back and the other comes to cup your ass.

 

You catch his face in your hands, a teasing smile beginning to darken your features and he mimics it, diving to tug on your lower lip with a gentle ferocity, his lips cool against yours and you’re smiling again, unable to stop yourself.

 

“Am I amusing to you, my love?” His voice is low and there’s a huskiness to it that makes another shiver slide up your spine and you groan as he sweeps his hand around a single cheek of your ass, squeezing it briefly in his grasp before he jerks a finger forward, brushing your clothed pussy and you jump in his arms, the soft chuckle that follows is taunting and infuriating in the same fell sweep and you can’t stop yourself from grabbing his cock through his tunic. He stills then, his eyes burning and you look up at him, your eyes widening into an expression you know he adores.

 

“All this, just for me?” It’s a teasing statement and you know it will drive him nuts and his breath is suddenly uneven, rasping. You grin, the triumphant smile coiling over your mouth only stopped when his fingers trail to pinch your clit and you arch against him, crying out. It’s been too long since you last felt his touch and even with the briefest of touches, you knew you were going to struggle. You push him backwards and allows you to guide him into your bedroom, his mouth rarely leaving your flesh as the two of you move together, as if one entity filled with the same ravenous need. The groan he lets out when you finally release him, shoving him back onto your bed with enough force that he near bounces, Loki’s eye glinting with a mixture of hunger and lust as he looks as though he wants to eat you up. And he just might.

 

(smut begins here xox)

 

You hover over him a moment, a smile glittering on your mouth as you yank your jumper over your head, your shirt following soon after and you’re left half-naked in the warmth of your apartment, his hands stroking up the sides of your waist as he watches you. His eyes glitter with lust at the sight of your breasts, his hands rising to stroke them tenderly and you shudder at the cool of his fingers as he brushes one teasingly over your nipple. He begins then to ease his gear off and as he does, the cheeky bastard rolls his hips and you gasp a breath, smacking his chest lightly and he chuckled, practically vibrating beneath you with glee.

 

By the time both of you had your pants off, you were wet enough that Loki smirked at you when your underwear was revealed and you rolled your eyes, brushing a hand down the hard erection he sported with a smug look on your face.

 

“Is that all for me?” He teased you, echoing your earlier statement as he ground himself into you, rolling his hips against you again and you lean down to catch his lower lip in your mouth, tugging it upwards until you’ve drawn blood. His fingers twist up, circling your nipples and he gives the right on a sharp twist, the noise you elicit almost making him impossibly harder and his right hand descends to your pussy, finding your clit easily as he pinches it gently. You arch above him, groaning out several naughty words and he chuckles. Loki knows your body so well, every part of you is familiar to him, even after five years and he still remembers how to make you cum so hard you shake and your eyes roll back into your head. Slipping your panties down your legs, he knows how much you hate it when he destroys your underwear, Loki delved a single finger inside you, the cool of his touch a sharp contrast to the heat of your folds and you gasp again, struggling to keep yourself up above him. He wonders briefly if you’re as touch-starved as he was, having not been with another woman in lieu of his favourite girl but he hopes in five years you’ve been with someone, even though it makes him endlessly jealous, you deserve to feel good and he knows how much you love sex.

 

You slither down him like a snake, raking warm fingers over his belly as Loki realises what you’re preparing to do and he practically has to curb the moan that you elicit from him the moment your mouth makes contact with his head. You lick a soft pattern around the tip, kissing it lightly as your eyes flick up to make eye contact with him and he can see the smirk on your lips before you take him into your mouth. He cries out, the warmth of your mouth a delicious sensation and everything in him is on edge, every nerve ending at your whim as you deep throat him and the sound of you gagging on his length makes him smile. Gathering your hair up from around your face, he holds it out of the way as you take more and more of him into your mouth and he nearly releases everything as he hits the back of your throat.

 

When he cums, it’s in hot bursts that you swallow with barely a grimace, he knows it’s not your most favourite thing in the world but you always do it for him. For a minute, both of you are breathing heavily, he’s more of a mess than you but the way your eyes shine makes him realise just how happy he is in that moment. Not just because he’s about to fuck the only woman he’s ever truly, deeply loved but because he’s here with you. You’re still his, the most beautiful woman in the universe still belongs to him and he adores you and everything in him is whispering to him that this is it, this is what he was saved for. To love you. That’s the reason for his existence and for a moment, he is still. Loki had never thought about it like that but the realisation he never wants another is solidifying as he thinks before he is rolling you over and burying himself in your pussy. You cry out as he delves his tongue inside of you before he coils it around your clit, the familiarity of your body easy to draw a reaction from as he continues to eat you out.

 

When he’s finished, you’re tired, he knows you well enough to see that you’re tiring fast. That worries him but he pushes it to the back of his mind as you climb back over him and sink yourself onto his cock with a rasping moan. The feeling of your pussy sunk around him is like everything good in this universe and as you begin to ride him with a practised ease, he realises that he’d never want to love another but you.

 

“Are you ready to come baby girl?” He whispers, knowing you’re close and that though you have a lot of pride, you are well and ready to come undone for him.

 

“Yes, please!” You near wail as he picks up his pace, thrusting into you swiftly with the ever presence of his fingers on your clit. When you come undone, he leans up to catch your mouth in his again and he kisses you with all the ferocity that was missing you. He cums not long after as the two of you remain a tangle of limbs, his cum seeping into you and he rolls you over so he’s on top, looking down at you with the softest, sweetest look on his face.

 

“I’m not on birth control,” You blurt, cheeks flushing slightly and Loki pauses, realising the implications before a slow smirk drifts to settle on his features.

 

“Good,” He breathes, before he kisses you again, his mind only on you and he knows it will barely stray for as long as he will exist.


	5. No More Suckers - Sam Wilson

“Cap. On your left,” The voice in your earpiece is a voice that makes you nearly squeeze your eyes shut mid-smackdown. It’s Sam’s voice and the familiarity of it brings tears to your eyes as a smile, wider than any you can ever recall since you lost him, curls onto your mouth and the viciousness with which you hurl the Outrider scum off of you is owing to hearing that voice, that cheeky, teasing statement that brings you back to when everything was slightly more normal. And everyone was still here and okay and everything was still as it had always been.

 

How the fuck were you going to tell Sam about Nat, you hadn’t even thought about it because the idea of her not coming back frightened you immensely and Sam, you knew he’d react to it in a way you couldn’t predict. He had been friends with Nat longer than you but given the amount of time the two of you had spent over the last five years, you’d come to find Nat and you got along so well that when Barton had broken down upon return from the quantum realm, you hadn’t even been able to say anything and simply just fled from the scene, unable to keep yourself together.

 

Unnerved, you almost didn’t see him soar from the portals, wings a flurry as he slammed into an Outrider, knocking it flat before slamming his wing tips into its chest with a ferocity that made you smile before you could even think about the expression and when his eyes find yours, that same vicious smile is on your lips and he returns it, with a warmth yours slightly lacks. He knows, you can see it in his eyes that he knows something is wrong and whether its because he’s already noted her absence or he can read it in your expression, your face twists as you feel the tears that have been drowning you since you lost another of your best friends to Thanos swell up at the back of your throat. Then Nebula is by your side, a war cry bursting from her lips as she moves to slash her blades into a cretin you hadn’t realised was hurtling towards you. That two of you make eye contact, her gaze almost on the verge of gentle as you meet eyes. She’s another dear addition to the group and the two of you leaned heavily on the other for emotional support alongside Nat, the three of you a group of badass women who all appreciated a good support circle and buttery popcorn. She knows, she can see it in your face that you’re struggling but this isn’t the time and you know it.

 

“We’re avenging her. We need to win, for her and then maybe we can find a way to get her back. But for now, you need to focus, I’m not losing you too because you’re stuck in a past you can’t yet change,” The two of you bump fists briefly and then together, you’re pushing back into the battle.

 

It doesn’t take long for Sam to make it to your side, which Nebula hasn’t left since joining the battle and the two of you make eye contact as he flings a bunch of Outriders into oblivion.

 

“Do you come here often?” Sam calls teasingly and you catch Nebula’s eye roll as she ducks his wings, the two of you so adept at fighting side by side that you’re already pushing yourself into a roll despite not having been aware of Sam’s wing as quickly as she had been.

 

“Not if I can help it!” You sing back, sending a knife flying into a Chitauri over Nebula’s shoulder and she jerks the knife free once the creature slackens, using it to score through one of the larger beast’s throat. A woman with green skin lands beside Nebula, a beautiful woman carrying a sword of similar make to Nebula’s and the way the two make eye contact, you establish that they are friends and the green woman is not an enemy and a moment later, you realise just who she is. Gamora, who Thanos originally sacrificed for the soul stone. This must be her past self and you’re oddly touched that Gamora is so trusting of Nebula that without a second thought she’d go against everything she currently knew. But you can’t imagine someone who Nebula loves as she does her sister ever being anything but good and brave and your heart swells for your dear friend, happiness for her overwhelming even though you know this moment is fleeting.

 

When Sam and you are finally able to rest later, he finds you almost immediately, tears staining your face but the relief in your features is clear. Winning, despite the weight of it, is the only thing that makes the loss of Nat and Tony palpable. Nebula moves to a safe distance once she catches sight of Sam, you’d cried too many times into her shoulder about him and she’s not quite ready for the emotional outpouring that is possibly about to take place.

 

“Missed your face baby girl,” Sam’s voice is thick with emotion as he clutches you to his chest, your fingers lacing around him as though you’ll never release him. You can’t even make a cheeky comment back, it’s all too much and when the tears come, they bring with them all the emotions you’ve been holding in, not just the overwhelming sadness of losing him in Wakanda but the sadness you hold for Nat, for Tony and for Nebula losing her sister again. But Sam doesn’t release you, letting you shake and soak his shoulder in your tears and when he kisses you, he’s crying too and you both taste like salt.

 

“Nat’s gone,” You whisper and his arms tighten around you, and in that moment he’s the only thing keeping you up.

 

“I know. Steve told me, I’m sorry baby,” Why is he sorry? He didn’t kill her, nothing is his fault and you clutch him closer to you, his mouth pressing a soft kiss to your forehead and you hear Nebula groan loudly in the background and then you’re laughing, both you and Sam are shaking with mirth and Nebula’s smiling too, fainter but somewhat sweeter and you hold out a hand to her and she runs into your arms, hugging you tightly to her.

 

“Sam, this is Nebula. We’re adopting her as our child,” You tease as Sam embraces Nebula, who shoots you a startled glance but your smile is a comfort and her hand is still in yours, she squeezes your fingers lightly as she and Sam release each other and Sam smiles at you, relief in his features. He’s glad you’ve found a friend amongst all this, even if it is Nebula and her sometimes less than gentle advice.

 

For a little while, what was a battlefield less than an hour prior is a place where you reunite with dear ones, and introduce Sam to new additions like Carol, who is another woman you added to your supportive lady crew, though she was less available for hangouts, she still reminds you of the better things in life. And for that time, everything is okay and you have your Sam and your friends and your mind is only on that, the now and you know that somewhere, Nat and Tony are smiling down at you.


	6. Soft to be Strong - Thor Odinson

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> thicc!thor

From the very moment he had lost you, Thor hadn’t been the same. Watching you crumble into dust that coated his fingers in a fine, silvery mist that soon became slick with his tears, all he could hear resounding through his head apart from Thanos’ jeer of, “You should have gone for the head,” was you telling him that everything was going to be alright as you turned into ash. He couldn’t quite recall the noise he’d made as he came to the realisation that he’d lost you, the last thing he had left in this world apart from his Avengers family and the remaining Asgardians he had hidden away where his father had died.

 

When he’d returned to them, complete with a broken expression and gripping Stormbreaker as though without it, he would crumble as she did, Valkyrie’s face twisted in a way he’d never quite forget, he could never drive the way she’d dissolved so completely yet still she had strode to meet him, to clasp him in her arms and let him shake as though he could not feel her doing the same. She had loved you as Thor had, not as completely and absolutely but the two of you were as siblings as the sun and the moon were different, Valkyrie and you were two of the most powerful women Thor had ever known and without you, it felt as though their tiny trio had not only shrunk but lost the brightest of its lights.

 

You were the goddess of spring rains, a lover of sweet-smelling flowers and held Frigga taught magic in the palms of your hands. You had always believed in Thor, before and after he’d been exiled to Midgard and you’d been his strongest supporter after he’d brought that Midgard woman to Asgard, a close friend of his that you’d never truly understood entirely, the complexity of how she had spoken had always befuddled you. You were one of singing verses and sweet sounds, not of science and war but you were one of peace and you would bring peace to the universe whether they desired it or not, Thor could rarely match you in battle, no one could. You were a true warrior, a product of Athena and some beautiful nymph and the fire in your eyes burned brighter than any of the stars in the universe.

 

When Thor avenged your death, freeing Thanos’ head from his shoulders, he’d wept because it had not brought you back and it seemed nothing ever would and none of the people he loved deeply would ever be coming back. He missed his mother and her wisdom and her way of chiding him without truly telling him off. He missed his father’s clear mind, his strength and the way he seemed to be able to make everything right. Most of all he missed his little brother and his sharp wit, the way nothing was ever truly serious with Loki and how he seemed to know how to make a situation better by making it so much worse. It took a while for him to truly separate himself from the overwhelming sadness and that separation came with the aid of alcohol, Valkyrie had awarded him a bottle of something that burned cruelly but after enough of it, the pain both in his head and in his physical form dissipated and for a blissful while, Thor was able to exist without anything else in this realm twisting cruelly in his gut.

When the rabbit came to collect him, it took some coaxing. It had been five years since Thor had seen your face, since he had truly cried for you, put his soul into mourning his lover and he’d long since succumbed to the sweet blur of alcohol. Existing amongst the Asgardians that remained was easy enough, Valkyrie had been reluctant to allow him so much alcohol but she could not argue with him when his face had dropped and his chin had wobbled, the idea of existing with the true memory of you made everything begin to slip.

 

Returning to his Avengers family was hard. Everything about them reminded him cruelly of you and the family dynamic between some of the Avengers made him miss his true family deeply. His need for the alcohol that had near replaced his blood didn’t increase however, Steve’s presence was surprisingly comforting and Thor found that his friend reminded him dearly of you, his need to make right and bring peace trumping anything else. When they’d first posed the idea, he had struggled to suppress how urgently he wanted it to be over and to have you back within his arms.

 

Making the journey with Rocket seemed like a task that might truly break Thor, but with them all counting on him, he hated to disappoint them, these people who cared not that he was drowning in his sorrows but loved him the same. He loved them all, his old family and the new friends he’d found in the new members, Carol, Rocket, Nebula and Okoye were all very dear to him and he grew excited with the idea of you meeting them. You, Okoye and Shuri had been friends since the three of you had met but Carol and Nebula had only heard about you in the tales he told when he’d had a little more than too much to drink and he knew you’d adore them. You loved women as he did, possibly even more and he knew Carol and you would get on fantastically. Thor wept at the idea of you never returning to him, he wanted you back so much, he wasn’t sure if he could continue to exist this way without you here.

 

Stumbling upon his mother was harder than he would have liked to admit, the raw pain of losing her flooded back, he’d never truly been able to mourn her and it reminded him cruelly of Loki. His mother’s hug and the scent of her rolling over him was enough to clear his head and then, when you, the old you walked in front of him, glittering golden and stained with flowers, he nearly did weep. You looked so young, so much less like the warrior you were today and the jasmine scent that clung to your hair brought him back to nights where sleep wasn’t an option. You hugged him, so tightly he thought he might break apart in your arms and when you stretched up to kiss him fiercely, with the power you burned with a familiar heat against his lips.

 

When he’d reached his timeline again, for a moment, he couldn’t speak, couldn’t think and couldn’t even react until Barton had revealed that Natasha wasn’t coming back and the severity of everything made him sink to the ground alongside Barton and weep.

 

The next time he saw you, it was the real you. Soaring from a golden portal beside the small man in a red suit who stuck close to her as she flung herself into battle, her golden power pulsing through the very Earth as she ripped Thanos’ warriors to pieces. Valkyrie joined you a moment later, the two lacing hands briefly and then you were both surging forward as that same red suit, gripping the infinity gauntlet, was flung sideways. The moment he stood, it was as though he was flanked by women as Carol, Valkyrie, Pepper, a woman he didn’t quite know, Wanda, Okoye, Shuri and you surrounded him, power radiating from every single one of you.

 

You collided with him a minute later, spinning him dizzy but sending him out of the way of the blasts Thanos’ ship was hurtling down and for a moment, he couldn’t breathe because you were here, you were real and you still smelled faintly like flowers.

 

“You grew your hair long,” Is all you say as you duck to kiss him mouth in a bright kiss that reminds him of summer sunlight and the deep fires of Asgard’s forges, a fierce, unparalleled warmth that heats him from head to toe. He hadn’t even thought to worry about how you’d find him now, he had more weight now than ever before but you’re uncaring as you kiss him deeply before Carol shatters through Thanos’ ship and you roll to your feet, eyes blazing with wild excitement.

 

“I like that one!” You cheer, helping Thor to his feet before tugging him towards where the others are plunging into a battle, and with a true smile, the truest he’s smiled in too long breaks across his face as Thor follows the love of his life into the thick of the battle.

 

When it’s over, you scarcely leave his arms, aggravating Valkyrie who wants to embrace you and when she does, both women weep again. Carol and you hug tightly, the two of you almost the same glow of light and Thor, despite it all, smiles again. Peter Parker, who Thor realises must be Tony’s son, also comes to greet you and Thor and receives hugs from both of them, you making him promise he won’t put himself so aggressively in danger ever again like that and Thor has to laugh. There’s a residual sadness though and Thor almost can’t bring himself to look at Tony’s body, because despite his dear friend still looking calm, Thor feels anything but knowing that he will never speak to him again, never joke or share coffee with Tony ever and sadness, not as overwhelming as before threatens to sink him as it had before. Until you take his hand in your own, squeezing it tightly in yours and you lean into him, resting on his chest. You poke his belly teasingly and he can’t help the laugh that startles him as it practically breaks free of his lips.

 

“I missed you, more than anything, more than anyone,” Thor whispered into your hair and you look up at him, eyes gleaming like the stars of which you came from.

 

“And I missed you more. All of you,” You poked him again before you catch his mouth in your own with that same heat and Thor knows that no matter what happens next, he has you and Val and his little Avengers family, at least what’s left of them. And that’s all he can bring himself to dwell on.


	7. You - Dark!Steve Rogers

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> this is dark stalker!Steve and has dub-con elements.

When he first saw you, Steve wasn’t quite sure if he was dreaming. You were as an angel is, draped in gold and seeming ethereal amongst the mortals flocked around you. He’d known he wanted you a moment later when as you turned as if in slow moment, a smile brighter and more exquisite than any other he’d encountered swept across your lips as the two of you made eye contact. He tipped his own mouth up in greeting and you wiggled manicured fingers in his direction, several different rings glittering at him. You were by far the only thing of any interest at the charity ball and though he was essentially undercover, Steve knew you recognised him. There was that glint in your gentle eyes that assured him you were very aware of his identity but as you turned, the deep scoop of your dress giving him a fantastic view of your naked back, there were no alarms raised, you simply sipped on the flute twiddling between your fingers before another engaged you in conversation Steve could not catch. You were sensational and Steve, even then, knew he had to have you one way or another.

 

The stealth suit came in handy. Nat’s knowledge database did too and it wasn’t long before Steve had practically locked down your moment by moment movements. It wasn’t hard, you were rather repetitive in your daily motions and being a presence in the media meant that most of your information was available to him thanks to the internet, so helpful. Your online presence was incredibly interesting to him, you were two different people online and in person. Steve had spent enough time hovering in the background around you when you thought you were alone, you were so much shier and less of the extrovert you made yourself out to be, he’d watched you carefully curating your online posts to create a version of yourself that wasn’t quite the person he’d come to know.

 

Steve knew so, so many things about you. It had taken a while, after the apparent disbandment of the Avengers he’d had a lot more time to spend in cute cafes in Brooklyn, bookstores in Manhattan and beaches in the Hamptons. Steve knew that you only drank coffee when you had barely slept the night before, he knew that you liked herbal tea and hot chocolate and that you had a sweet tooth you were constantly battling with. Steve had discovered you liked flowers, you rarely had a preference but he knew you adored jasmine and lily, they were the most common that you purchased in bouquets for yourself and Steve sent you a few as a test and though you were somewhat surprised by them, whenever he paid you a late night visit; they were always in a vase somewhere in your apartment. 

 

You were a night owl, preferring the company of books to that of strangers and cold drinks and he’d nearly gotten himself caught when he’d believed you already asleep to nearly walk into you as you lay on your side reading with a tiny light attached to the book, too soft that he hadn’t seen it till he’d nearly been on top of you. Sometimes Steve caught you during bath or shower time and whilst he listened to your soft singing floating from the bathroom as though you were a siren, he’d plant listening devices and tiny cameras where Steve knew you wouldn’t notice, because when you were concentrating, not much got past you.

 

Steve took your things sometimes, underwear, shirts, a ring that he wore around his neck and Natasha teased him about. He had grown to find himself in some version of love with you. He woke every morning with the thought of you and found himself sleeping easier at night with the idea that soon, you would be his. When your apartment got broken into and Steve didn’t think he’d be able to make it there in time, he’d stumbled in on broken glass and flattened flower petals and felt like he was going to throw up at the idea that any harm had come to you. He had been grateful for the familiar stealth suit when you had strode past your bedroom, snapping fiercely at someone on the phone about some loser thinking you were some defenceless socialite who was afraid of a gun and Steve had relaxed, the nausea in his stomach quelling. Steve had watched the security footage later and the sight of you nearly breaking the intruder’s wrist as you wrenched the gun from him and turned it back on him made him instantly hard. You, despite how fragile you could seem, were stronger than Steve had previously acknowledged and it turned him on.

 

News of Thanos reached him, Sam and Nat quickly, you were his first thought but you couldn’t be his first priority. He worried every night he was away retrieving Wanda and Vision and that stress began to show on the journey back, he was sharper than he intended to be and Nat had to practically snap at him to take a break, to get himself together.

 

He had taken you that night, snatched you from your bed and you hadn’t woken until they were nearly at the safe house and when you did, he’d already thought to bind your wrists and ankles and to gag you as though he was a competent driver, he felt he wouldn’t be able to wrestle you without killing you both. You were almost slow on the realization, but Steve recognised it as an awareness close to his own, you made sure you understood the entire situation before you reacted. He hadn’t planned on you swinging both your bound legs around to hook a foot under the handbrake and jerk it up quicker than he had been prepared to react to and before Steve had been able to even think, the car had screeched to a stop. They were alone on the road and having a seatbelt on meant that Steve had escaped injury, you were less lucky as you’d been twisted in the belt and been thrown forward, your body limp and blood gushing from several cuts on your cheeks and forehead. 

 

Steve swore, more violently than he recalled having done in a while, his heartbeat rocketing as he worried about hurt having come to you, hurt he could have averted by properly knocking you out as he hurried around to the other side of the car. Releasing the seatbelt, he untangled you from it as gingerly as he dared and you were a dead weight in his arms when he lifted you out, fingers probing your sides to check for broken ribs and snarled quietly when he felt one, almost halfway up that he knew would cause you pain when you woke. Otherwise, your injuries seemed to be surface wounds, the cuts to your face alluded to the possibility of concussion so he’d have to monitor that, but other than the bruises beginning to bloom where the belt had dug in and where you’d collided with the dashboard and most likely the windscreen. He strapped you in tightly in the back seat, he didn’t have much further before he reached the off grid place he’d had since HYDRA had infiltrated SHIELD.

 

Getting you inside proved difficult, Steve found you had begun to regain consciousness and you struggled faintly, moaning unhappily within his arms until he got you into the bedroom. There, he’d unbound your wrists and ankles as you watched him through heavy, confusion stained eyes. You recognised him. You knew exactly who he was. Steve bandaged your ribs and smudged away the tears that had come as he’d done that, treated the cuts on your face and piled the duvet and blankets around you before he left, pressing a kiss to your forehead as he did.

 

“When the war for good is over, you and I will be free and together. I will return to you,” He said quietly and you whimpered, low in your throat. You were confused, that was clear and he didn’t blame you. You didn’t understand yet. But he would help you, he would show you how happy you two would make each other. He would teach you to love him if he had to. Or he would just fuck you until you thought there was nothing better than his cock bringing you to orgasm. Steve didn’t mind either way.

 

“I’ve been watching you since I first saw you at that ball. I knew then that I wanted no other but you. You’re mine, little one,” Steve said then, leaning over you in an attempt to impose on your personal space, knowing how it would irk you. He knew you’d react soon, he needed to leave but first, he had to inspire something in you.

 

“So you’re the stalker. I knew I wasn’t going crazy but I blamed it on paranoia! And for your information, I am no one’s but my own,” You snapped back, eyes filling with fury as you struggled free from the covers to practically launch yourself at him but he was ready for it. Steve caught you, his fingers snaking up and around your throat and he squeezes lightly, tauntingly and you snarl.

“You were mine before you even knew it was me,” Steve whispered, his face close enough to yours that he could kiss you if he so felt like it. He liked that you knew that, he could see it in your eyes that you were very aware of the position you were in. He released you then, pushing you back onto the bed and though he flinches when you cry out, Steve decidedly liked the fear that lingers in your gaze as you look up at him. 

 

‘Dream of me,” He whispers before he’s gone and the house creaks softly as Steve vanishes back into the night, leaving you staring at the door that’s still ajar.


	8. Emotional Machine - James Rhodes

It took a while for Nebula to realise that you were the one James had been missing. Likely because the two of you almost avoided each other the moment you snapped back into existence, it took Nebula accidentally stumbling on a frame of the two of you in James’ studio at the new compound for her to realise what she’d read as a mutual neutrality between the two of you was something far worse, something far more awkward. She didn’t broach the matter at first, choosing instead to find out first why the two of you were almost at odds with another, James practically bristling every time you were sent out on a mission without him and Nebula turned to him one day, perched on the bench with her legs dangling, Wanda snoozing on the couch and the two Peters arguing over what movie to force everyone through this evening.

 

“Why do you hate y/n?” Nebula had always been blunt and James appreciated it most of the time but he did truly flinch when she spat that at him, her black eyes filled with an open curiosity. James considered for a moment, before he decided it was easier to tell her the truth than it would be to keep it from her, she’d probably ask you next and that made his stomach churn. You were different, different from work, from missions, from normal Nebula conversations and it had thrown him that she’d even thought to ask.

 

“I don’t hate y/n. We just- we had a falling out and we never really repaired before the snap happened and everything was just crazy and y/n was gone and I can’t remember feeling more useless. Now y/n is back and I don’t know how to approach anything, because everything is different, especially now and y/n just won’t understand. And then we’re both still grieving in our own way and it just feels too hard,” Nebula eyed him, her expression almost vague as she steepled her palms on her knees and a thoughtful expression replaced the vague.

 

“You should talk to her,” Is all that Nebula says, her voice even and her eyes truthful and James sighed quietly, more to himself but Nebula heard it, arching an eyebrow briefly before she slipped down from the bench, landing squarely on the floorboards and with almost no noise she padded over to join Wanda on the couch. James watched her go without comment, but inside, his stomach was wrenching itself into knots. Talking to you, for an extended period of time, made him nervous, the last conversation the two of you’d had hadn’t ended well, he remembered how sharp the two of you had been with the other and the way your face had collapsed as you’d drawn into yourself. He hadn’t been quite sure what the fight was about, you’d been angry about him putting himself at risk for you but James hadn’t understood why you were mad and the last time he’d spoken to you was right before the snap and you’d been distant, off sounding and he’d worried, though leaving it down to the inevitable battle as he couldn’t afford to imagine anything other than that being on your mind.

 

He recalled briefly how you’d slipped through his fingers, your eyes wide and terrified as the two of you searched for Sam and how he’d sat back hard a moment later, his eyes unfocused. Steve and Nat had had to pull him to his feet as he watched the last of what had been you drift into oblivion. 

 

When you’d stumbled from Strange’s portals at Shuri’s side, James’ breath had caught and his heart had practically pounded from his chest. You hadn’t aged a day, limbs glinting like melted chocolate in the golden light of the portal and your hair still in a tight braid as your eyes found his briefly and you smiled then, mouth hooking in a warm beam. You were so familiar, in this world that had changed so much and he was ultimately relieved to see that you were unchanged by wherever you had been for the last five years.

 

And then Tony had happened. James had been more affected than you, you loved Tony but not like him, not the way Tony and James had had a bond and he’d grieved longer and deeper than you. You’d grieved too, you’d loved Nat dearly and the idea that you’d never see her again had plunged you into deep grief and for some time, you were unreachable even to your closest friends.

 

For a while, the two of you coexisted silently and miserably within your own respective wedges of the new compound, rarely interacting until it so happened that Nebula decided she’d had enough. She’s gotten to know you slowly and begun to understand from your conversations of the past with Wanda, with Sam and Bucky. You didn’t understand the hero complex that James had, you hated him for putting his life on the line over yours and Nebula saw you a twin soul in her own, wanting not to endanger those whom you loved and not having them pay the price if something went wrong. She understood James’ perspective too. He loved you, so profoundly that he wasn’t entirely sure how much and that made it difficult for him to look past duty and his own life for which he would sacrifice in a heartbeat for you.

 

Nebula departed the scene a mere minute after she and Sam had set it up. Both on the pretence of wanting to grab something to eat, she brought James and Sam ambled in a moment later with you. The temperature of the room dropped a few degrees and Sam yanked his head sharply towards the exit as he hurried out, your eyes lingering on his retreating figure, betrayal simmering. Nebula was slower in her exit, eyes finding James’ and she was pleased to note that his expression was more peaceful than yours, his shoulders had dropped almost in defeat and he was toying with his fingers. 

 

The door shut behind Sam and you were left glowering at the floor, trying to ignore the jarring way your heartbeat had picked up upon being so close to James. He had half turned towards you, something like hesitation in his expression and you opened your mouth briefly, before you blanched and closed it, tightening your shoulders as you lean back against the kitchen bench. He takes a seat, mirroring the way you’ve begun to relax and for a beat, the two of you are silent, all you can hear is your heartbeat thundering in your ears, so loudly that you don’t hear him the first time he speaks.

 

“What?” Your voice is loud, strangled almost and James tenses a little at the tightness in your tone.

 

“I was just saying that it- it wasn’t you. I was the one who should have apologised, I didn’t mean for you to feel that way and I’m sorry. I know how isolated you’ve been and I know how weird it is for you to be back with us. I’m sorry that things have been how they are but I just- I had to deal with things with Tony and I’ve been so caught in it I haven’t had the courage to speak with you,” You’re watching him silently, doe eyes all of a million emotions and none of which he can track as they are so fleeting. Your gaze settles, your eyelids lowering briefly as you inhale sharply before you push the breath back out.

 

“James, honey, it was never an issue that you needed time. I was angry over something stupid before I y’know, left. I wanted you to take that time, I needed my own time emotionally to process, to understand, to grieve and I know you needed the same. That wasn’t why I was angry in the beginning, I was angry because you put my life over yours and you shouldn’t,” He goes to speak, to protest and you raise a finger, almost threateningly at him.

 

“No. You don’t get to tell me that it is your job, that you would prefer you take a bullet than me. It is not up to you, I hate that you think my life is worth more than yours,” Your voice is quiet, level and incisstant and James straightens slightly, realising the true weight of your words and although there will always be a part of him that will need to protect you above all else, he acknowledges your plea with a slow nod. When you pace forward towards him, he’s almost not expecting it and when your toes are practically touching and he can smell the spicy perfume you have on your throat. Cinnamon, cloves and something fresh and citrusy and his head is nearly swimming from it. Your eyes wandered his face, his fingers coming to brush your cheek and you nearly shiver at his touch despite how warm his fingers are and you reach your own hand up to cup his jaw. He leans into the touch almost unconsciously and your smile begins to widen.

 

“Y’know anyone else would be grateful I’m tryna save their life. I’m a soldier, it's in my nature but I understand that you’re not a fan of the heroics. I dunno what I’d do if anything had ever happened to you that I could have prevented and when you snapped, I realised that maybe I couldn’t protect you from everything, I’m just a half-machine, half-soldier that wants to than anything, to protect you from harm but I couldn’t protect you from that,” James is trembling slightly beneath your fingertips and you place your other hand on his chest, feeling the warmth of his flesh and the steady heartbeat that pounds against your fingers.

 

“For a half-machine, you sound pretty human to me,” You murmur and you’re very close to him all of a sudden and you can hear his heart rate steadily picking up. When finally, slowly you kiss him and just as slowly, his mouth moves against yours in return. He tastes like apples and as his hands catch your hips and warmth floods you, you wonder why it had taken you so long to have gotten to this. 

 

When finally the two of you seperate, neither of you are breathing evenly and you can still feel his heart beneath your palm. James is tentative, cautious and unnervingly quiet for a moment before his voice breaks.

 

“I’m half machine honey, I’m not someone to spend your life with,” You kiss him again, kissing the statement away fiercely and he returns the fierceness with a passion that makes you smile against his lips.

 

“You’re not just this, James. You’re so, so much more. Even supposedly half-machine, you’re still half human and I’m whole, arrogant human enough for the both of us,” He snickers quietly, his fingers tangling into the hair at the back of your neck and the comfortable silence that follows is broken by Nebula, who you hadn’t been previously aware of, entering the room with Sam hot on her heels.

 

“If I’d known how quickly you two would make up, I would have forced you together weeks ago. Now get away from the table, the rest of us prefer to eat there,” You laugh at her statement and James is blushing fiercely as the two of you depart to the sound of Sam wolf whistling.


	9. Please Don't Call Me - Natasha Romanoff

**Summary for the Chapter:**

> reader finds out their ex-girlfriend is dead

“Please, please stop fucking calling me, Steve,” Your voice cracked slightly, you’d been tempted to send the call to voicemail but Steve had already filled it, having had already called you eleven times. Why the fuck did he keep calling you? None of them had been in touch over the last five years, let alone the months prior to the Snap and thus you knew that although Natasha had survived the Snap, you weren’t sure about how many others had. But that didn’t matter anymore, because a few days ago, they’d all come flooding back.

 

You’d been in your studio, trying to find inspiration in something, anything, when a hand had clasped itself around your shoulder. You’d nearly leapt from your own skin, whirling to face the most familiar of faces in your grandmother, who had been one of those vanished and you’d clung to her for what felt like forever, tears of relief ruining the eyeliner slicked above your lashes. You hadn’t heard anything from those you assumed you could thank for bringing her back, not in the last few days at least but you knew better than to go prying and in all honesty, the pain of even speaking to any of your ex-girlfriend’s friends kinda warded you off reaching out. 

 

But now Steve was on the other end of the phone and it was too late to hang up and so you waited for him to speak. Part of you wondered what the hell he wanted and why he was calling you at such an hour and the other part, the part that had been the phone urging you to pick up the phone, already knew what he was calling about. Steve Rogers wouldn’t have left you eleven missed calls for no reason.

 

“Y/n, I need to tell you something. Are you sitting down? I need you to sit down,” His voice is quiet authority and you plunge, glad you’re already sitting because the room sways violently as you collect yourself. You’re on fire, your throat burning and your stomach made of heat as you squeak a reply into the phone.

 

“God, Steve, don’t tell me- Steve, no,” You squeeze your eyes together, the horror of what you cut yourself off from saying on your tongue and you hear him inhale. There’s a soft sound, what you know as a sob and the tears clouding your vision begin to release in slow, hot drops. Your fingers tremble around your phone, threatening to weaken and let the phone fall but there’s still strength in them yet. There’s that same part of you that knows and then there’s the rest of you, a mixture of not wanting to know and needing, desperately more than anything, to know.

 

“I’m sorry y/n, I’m so sorry. I wish I was ringing you about anything, absolutely anything else,” His voice breaks just enough and you choke a sob and the part of you that was right is anything but triumphant. You’ve sunk to the floor, the paintbrushes littering you still stained with paint that leaks all over the newspapers flung over the floor.

 

“We lost her y/n, she sacrificed herself for all of us, for you, for me, for Clint and everyone else. She died for Clint, well, instead of him. They were in another world, retrieving something that could stop Thanos and the choice was her or Clint and Nat made that call,” You were openly sobbing now, barely aware of the tears soaking your cheeks and smock and although you are no longer shaking, you feel as though you are brittle, ready to turn to pieces under a strong breeze. Your fingers still squeeze around the phone, paint-stained and the ring on your middle finger is one she owns a twin to. You squeeze your eyes shut, as though it will shut off the memories of Natasha, as though it will stop the news that Steve has just delivered to you. It won’t, but it slows the tears to a more manageable pace. They still burn but you’re unaware of it because everything is burning. It takes a while for you to collect yourself but Steve lets you cry, you can hear him crying too, softer than your own tears but he is. 

 

“I’ll come pick you up. We all need to see you, to talk to you. Everyone misses you, Nat missed you so much and she never got around to telling you and I’m sorry. None of us knew she wouldn’t be coming back, not even her. She was my best friend and I’m sorry, I’m so sorry,” You nodded faintly, knowing he can’t see you but it's for your own benefit more so than his. You’re trembling when finally he hangs up, promising to be around in the morning with the others and the moment he does hang up you launch your phone across the room, uncaring if its screen shatters, you just want it away from you.

 

It’s a long time before you can breathe evenly. You sit in the shower for longer than you should, vaguely aware that you’re wasting water but you can’t bring yourself to care. You sit against the tiled walls of the shower, tiles cool against your spine a sharp contrast to the heat of the water. You shudder as you sob, the shower untelling of the countless tears the roll from your eyes. You can’t help thinking back to when everything was better, normal and your stomach twists just thinking about it.

 

It was a few months before the Snap that Nat broke things off between the two of you. You’d been dating since 2014 when the two of you had run into each other at Stark’s party, she’d saved you from one of Stark’s evil robots and the two of you had gone out several times over the next few months before you’d made it official. From then, it had been more or less on and off, Nat was always busy and you rarely left the studio, classes were your main source of income and the waiting list to get into your classes was long. Nat had popped by sometimes and the amount of half finished paintings you had of the red-head lying around were startling. Usually, she was too impatient to let you finish and would fling herself at you and that was the end of any painting that night.

 

You had never been quite sure why she’d ended it, but you were usually one to question Natasha. You’d recognised break up sex a mile off and the gentle kiss she’d pressed to your forehead after all was done had made your insides twist. But you knew Nat. You knew she was most likely protecting it to you, but never truly getting an answer would always hurt you.

 

It hurt you now, as you lay on your bed, hair wet and a towel thrown haphazardly around you. You’re something between burning and freezing, but it’s not a natural temperature. Your bones feel heavy, wooden and your head feels like it weighs more than it should. You would always love Natasha, she wasn’t your first love, but she was your last. No one could follow Black Widow, truly. And you’d never forget her, never forget the way she smiled, the way she ducked her head when she laughed or the way she grew shy when you painted her, as though she couldn’t fathom anyone finding her exquisite enough to capture.

 

When Steve arrives the next morning, you’re cross-legged painting on your floor, newspapers splattered with paint in familiar colours and Steve almost forgets how to breathe when he sees what you’re working on. All the unfinished paintings of Nat that have been left to time are wet with fresh paint and its Natasha’s eyes that find him when he finally sees you, her eyes a little over your head as you crouch to streak paint over her bodice. It’s like, for a moment, she’s there. She’s with you, watching over you and Steve feels the warmth of tears again. You let him gather you into his arms, clinging to him and his familiar smell. It’s a while that the two of you sit there and when finally you can bring yourself to speak, you don’t have anything to say. And that, to Steve, is enough.


	10. Too Afraid - Nebula

“You smell like the air in winter when it’s just rained,” The pretty blue creature that been by Rhodey’s side when you’d exited Strange’s portal, jerked upon realising you’re addressing her, holding your gaze with something like confusion glittering in her dark eyes but she doesn’t speak, doesn’t gift your comment with a reply and you don’t need one. You’re in the midst of plotting a flight path for Danvers, angels knew the cheeky blonde could use some help and though you’re focused on what you need to achieve, you’re very aware of the blue almost-cyborg sitting on the couch opposite you.

 

When finally she spoke, it startled you enough that your fingers jump and several sheets of paper scattered, sifting like large snowflakes onto the floor. Her voice is lower than you expect and she speaks slowly, forcefully and you turn back to look at her once she finishes, she’s watching you with those pupil-less eyes and something like a shiver descends your spine.

 

“You smell like the forests in Berhert and when you go out sometimes, you smell like red fruit,” You think she means strawberries, or maybe currents, they’re usually essential scents in the perfumes you decorate yourself with before leaving the compound, the ichor and metal smell of it something you’d always detested. You smiled then, you hadn’t realised anyone had noticed but it was evident that Nebula was more aware than you’d given her credit for. Stowing the mess of papers into of folio with a quiet sigh, you stand, arching briefly on the balls of your feet before you gather the rest of your belongings, relieved to have finally finished the flight patterns and with a three-fingered movement, you opened a veil portal.

 

“Danvers! Homework!” Slim fingers reach out and you press the files into Carol’s hands before she bobs in front of your portal, meeting your eyes with a gleaming smile. She’s beautiful, otherworldly in her effervescence and the way she smiles makes you feel warm and giddy.

 

“Thank you baby!” She sings and you smile wryly before closing the portal and you find Nebula staring at you as you do so. Her face is expressionless to the point that you can see the curiosity leaking from her eyes, eyes that are almost soullessly dark but you know her. Nebula is familiar now and you can through the veil she creates. You never push though, you value your own privacy as much as you value others.

 

“You and Carol, are you a pair?” The snort you let out is ugly but there’s not much else of a reaction to the comment. You’re startled, the idea that she’d even reached that conclusion is both unusual and laughable. Carol was powerful, a strength you could never hope to match, a hothead only levelled out by the peaceful calm of Brunnhilde, the Valkyrie Thor had left as Queen of Asgard, well New Asgard, in Norway and though Carol had taken a while to get used to the cold, she had at least stopped complaining. So as you shake your head at Nebula, the laughter leeches into your face and she seems to shrink back a little into herself, her shoulders becoming sharper and tenser. She is a curious being, very nearly human and with those all-seeing eyes, sometimes even more than and you find it mesmerising. She’s one of the most interesting additions to the team, opting to remain Earth-bound whilst the rest of those alien, including Thor, had departed not long after they’d all bring brought back. You find yourself musing silently as you watch her, wishing you were something more of an artist so as to capture the features that seemed glass-sculpted.

 

Nebula seems to either not be aware of your stare or she doesn’t care, for its quite a while before you depart that you ponder her face. She’s watching you, closer than you realise or are even aware of and as you leave the room, her eyes follow you still. Nebula tracks your movements with an almost calculated stare, noting the way you favoured one leg, the way you kept an eye on your toes, as though scared you’d trip if you didn’t focus on it. You were younger, she realised, than she’d first perceived, less world-weary and you burned brighter. She felt your pull, as though a magnetic field or gravity but she felt it, dragging her closer into the ocean that is you, coaxing her with soft fingers and whispered words.

 

And Nebula is more than ready to drown in you. But for now, she’s too afraid. Of rejection. Of the feelings setting fire to her insides and of love, something she has never known until you and your soft smile and the way you dance your fingers up her spine despite her protests and your giggles when she reveals just how ticklish she is.

 

“Hey Nebula, did you wanna come get lunch with me? If you have-” Nebula is standing, smoothing shaking fingers down the sides of her uniform before she strides to your side, a little less stoic than before and she’s welcomed by the all-encompassing smile that drowns all her fears.

 

Nebula and you become something slowly. It’s not fast, as some relationships are, things don’t light too fast and burn out too quickly. Nebula is slow in loving, unused to it but you, she could love you for centuries. The way you make her feel is new too and that makes her feel weightless, limitless and ethereal. You rely on her intrinsically and it warms her to know a creature adores her in the way you do. Nebula never thought she’d know real love, not like that which her sister had found, not like what Stark had had but here you were. And she was so glad.


	11. Enjoy your Life - Thor Odinson

When Thanos snapped half the universe out of existence, Thor had felt like something had been ripped from him but it wasn’t until five years later that he found out his soulmate had been one of the fallen. At the time, the vile pain that had wracked him he’d attributed to his overwhelming fury towards Thanos and when the pain persisted after he’d murdered the Titan, he’d blamed it on his guilt, on the overwhelming feeling of nothingness that he’d derived from Thanos’ death. For five years, he’d endured, despite the pain and the emptiness that had grown to an overwhelming pit that had begun to gnaw away at him. He relied heavily on substances to quell that pain, to numb it for a while until it came back with a vengeance. Rinse and repeat. Repeat and rinse. It became his day in day out, Korg and his chattering aiding him in leaving everything that was feeling behind.

 

But when Banner had snapped everyone who’d vanished back into existence, and that vast hole that had been wearing away like a cavity at Thor was suddenly full again, whole and strong, he’d realised that it had been something entirely different that had been plaguing him all these years, though the grief and guilt were still weighty, everything felt suddenly lighter. And then Thanos blasted them into nothingness and the world fell away into darkness.

 

It was a while later that Thor recalled his realisation, but he had no time to be jovial, to reveal the delightful news to the others. Val sensed the change in him almost instantly, her cold eyes raking him with that familiar expression of curiosity, he merely shook his head at her, she’d have to wait until after Tony’s life was celebrated before he revealed his news. She had found her own soulmate in Carol Danvers, the beautiful, albeit fierce space warrior and it seemed terribly fitting to Thor that the two were met souls.

 

Knowing you had a soulmate was one thing, a brilliant awareness and a glittering hope but a met soul? They were harder to come by, finding one’s soulmate was a task upon itself and most mortals never did. Thor was surprised though, for the length of time he’d existed, he’d never felt the soulmate pull as strongly as he had when Banner snapped them back into existence. He could feel them now, the soft energy that pulsed through him was unmistakably human in substance but there was a thread of a separate energy lingering within the signature. There was the sweet hum of power and Thor, upon considering, wondered if his soulmate was enhanced.

 

He brought it up with Val first, her and Carol were near inseparable so the blonde got the story as well and then to Steve, who Thor had always seen as someone like himself in nature and Steve understood, in ways that made Thor more relieved when he got it all off of his chest. They were all even-headed about the situation, agreeably so and though Thor came away from the conversations a little confused, he always felt more enlightened about the entire soulmate business. But he still had no idea how he was going to locate his soulmate and how one might go about it, none of his friends were very helpful and so, for some time after he found out, Thor stewed over just how he was going to track you down.

 

Thor had let the idea of energy signatures slip his mind but a new ally in Nebula led to them perusing satellites for such signatures, Tony’s tech and Nebula’s talent for being able to run almost any system in the galaxy thanks to the cybernetics in her implant. It wasn’t long before they traced the energy and Nebula heaved a relieved sigh when they pinpointed Thor’s soulmates’ unique energy signature in the downtown of Seattle, Washington State. Nebula clapped a firm blue hand against Thor’s shoulder as he murmured endless thanks to her, a faint smile on her face as Nebula padded from the basement to her own room, where her soulmate slept peacefully. She wouldn’t allow Thor to know, but she’d used the same tracking device when she’d felt her own soulmate’s energy coalesce close enough to Earth that she could detect them and Tony, ever patient and accommodating with her, had shown her how to track the half-goddess down. Her soulmate had made her happier than anything or anyone Nebula had ever known and the knowledge that she’d helped another find that happiness kindled warm fire in Nebula’s belly as she shut the door behind her.

 

Thor had a location, a heading but the nerves that had been gearing themselves up to lock into his skin began to surface. What if his soulmate didn’t want him? What if they thought he was as useless as he felt sometimes? Thor had been so thrilled at the possibility of finding them that it hadn’t even occurred to him if they might want him. But, he thought, steeling himself, there was no harm in trying.

 

Steve came with him, the Quinjet settled in a gentle peace as Thor kept a close eye on the tracking device, relieved that it wasn’t moving greatly in any extreme directions. It had moved since he’d first detected it, out into the bay towards the islands. When they neared the empty space that you were apparently occupying, Thor grew confused. Peering down, all he could make out as water, thunderous and deep blue-black, swirling strangely and then- You rose like plume of smoke, limbs soaking wet and near reflective as slowly you advanced from the roiling waters.

 

Steve dropped Thor on the beach closest to where you were making the ocean surge, a long expanse of sand and rocks looking out over the islands and the North Pacific. You didn’t return to land for a while, giving Thor time to pace as he ponders what kind of creature you could be. He’d known of water nymphs, of mer people and of sirens but you and your strange almost elemental powers were new to him. Thor had always found Earth fascinating, the different types of humans and their different levels of power were something similar to Asgard, without the monarch system. Mortals were almost randomly embued with power, not due to birthright but due to a simple previously hidden gene or even just by dumb luck. As he waited, Thor wondered which you were.

 

The energy surge that accompanied you stepping onto the beach made tiny sparks shoot from Thor’s fingers and he glanced up, finding you were closer to him than you should have been able to be in the time it had taken. You were soaking wet, skin steaming slightly as the weak sunshine began to dry your limbs and the previously unseen silvery scales that coated your hands and feet were beginning to sink back beneath your skin, as were a pale set of gills adorning your throat. For a long minute, the two of you admired the other as your pupils became less sharklike and began to glimmer with faint humanity.

 

“You’re old,” Was all you said and Thor raised a heavy brow at you. You shrugged at the almost glare, sitting beside him on the log and crossing your legs almost daintily. You were almost dry, how he did not know, but your hair was drying as he watched it, the strands unclumping slowly though you seemed both unaware and uncaring.

 

“You smell old. Its a relief you’re an immortal, I’d thought I would outlive my met soul but you and your aggressive energy, you’re ages old. It’s a mutation by the way, gene related. I nearly drowned when I got snapped back and that was all it took to release what feels like a shark mutation,” You have a wry smile glancing across your mouth and its comfort in the teasing edge. Thor edges closer to you on the log as your energy thrums softly, not as burning as previously but its there, roiling beneath the surface. He wonders what his own energy is like, the signature stronger and more potent than yours.

 

“Do you live here?” His voice is a deep rumble and you nod, pushing dry strands back off of your face. Your fingers are still slightly webbed, though he’s not sure that the webbing will shrink back and later, when it hasn’t he doesn’t comment. You stand from the log, feet crunching into the sand, which doesn’t stick to your skin like it does his own. You help him up, the strength gliding from your limbs almost Asgardian in nature and he wonders where you’re really from, where your ancestors hail from for the strength that glitters below the surface of your skin. But he has forever to find out, so he follows you wordlessly up the beach and into the carpark. He calls Steve from your car, lets him know he can join the two of you in Port Angeles, where you hide out on weekends away from the busy city and Thor finds it reminds him of Norway, where his new Asgard thrives under Val and Carol.

 

Coffee in Port Angeles becomes tradition with Steve as a thirdwheel. You teach them to surf on the warmer days, Thor summons storms when you want to dance in the rain and Steve retires, moving to Seattle with his soulmate. Thor is overwhelmed by his friendship and you remind him that there are soulmates that you can pick yourself and that the friendship between the two of them is the most genuine and sweet and you’re glad to be a part of it. He finds easy rhythm with you, as you alternate between the sea and the land and he moves between the sky and the land. One day, he tells you, he’ll return to his people with you and you’ll meet Asgard as it should be, as a close people under a benevolent ruler. He tells you about his past, tells you who he’s lost and you tell him that his past doesn’t define him and that he can only look to the future. You mourn with him for his sibling, for his parents and for those he lost and he mourns for those you never found. But he found you as you found him and as the sun sets, Thor looks on in peace. He cannot change his past, he can only influence his future and that he must.


	12. Baby - Valkyrie

Val had grown uneasy as the night grew older. She understood that she needed to remain here for the celebration of Tony’s life, but she was growing weary of the supposed superheroes scattered around her. She missed you and your soft smiles and wanted nothing more than to be home with you, wrapped in your arms as you toyed with her hair and she pressed chaste kisses to your slender throat. Not here, surrounded by people she barely knew and feeling more isolated than ever with Thor having drifted off to speak to Steve Rogers and the rabbit and his tree friend had long since vanished into the night.

 

Her phone beeped as if on cue and Val glanced down at it, brow wrinkling a tad when she read your name. It was late, too late in New Asgard for you to be awake but the notification you’d sent a photo glared up at her. Swiping it open, it took Val a moment to process what exactly you’d sent her before she gulped and closed her phone, glancing around cautiously to make sure no one else had seen the image of your scantily clad chest. Her stomach tightened and she grew very warm, unable to push the smile building on her lips as she stared at her blank phone. You were a brat, she was going to be having some words with you when she arrived back, but honestly, the picture was a welcome distraction.

 

Carol Danvers made a beeline for her a moment later and Val stowed her phone, knowing you might have the gall to end more just to tease her. She was validated a moment later in her concerns when her phone vibrated against her ass, though she paid it no mind as she focused on Carol, who was talking to her about the prospect of Val joining her several planets over in aid of checking out an energy disturbance that Carol would rather have backup on. Val blanched, noting the undertones as she asked and though she was flattered, her phone buzzed again like a reminder.

 

“I actually have plans to return to my partner by daybreak in two days, y/n is getting a little restless without me and I know how they worry,” Carol’s face brightened warmly, James Rhodes’ lanky form nearing behind them as he came to stand beside her, bumping her shoulder gently with his own and she smiled at him. Val knew that smile, realising she may have slightly misread the undertones but Carol didn’t seem flustered when Val complimented the two of them, even going as far as winking, although Rhodey’s cheeks pinked a tad and Val chuckled at the two.

 

When they’d dispersed, Val glanced back towards her phone, doubtlessly you’d been sending her more messages after not receiving a reply from the first and when Val opened her phone, she was greeted by several photos that she probably shouldn’t be looking at surrounded by heroes. Slipping out and into the night, she was greeted by the soft flush of Earth’s moon and the cool of the night air brushed her cheek gently. Opening her phone, she swiped through the plethora of photos you’d sent through and let out a low groan. They got progressively racier as you’d clearly gotten both bored and annoyed that you were being ignored and the last picture was entirely naked, you were sitting in front of the floor length mirror in your shared bedroom, discarded lingerie sprinkled around you and a bra dangled from the top of the mirror.

 

“Brat,” She hissed out, but it was without venom, her mouth curving up as her knickers dampened at the sight of you so debauched. You were easily the most beautiful creature she’d ever encountered and seeing you like this both aroused and frustrated her. She wanted nothing more than to have you in her arms, to feel your body on her own and taste the sweetness that clung to your skin. Pressing the Facetime icon, she waited almost a minute before your face, blurry in the light of the midnight sun, your hair cascading around you and a bare shoulder emerges beneath one of her sweaters.

 

“Baby?” You murmur, your voice a mumbled, sleepy haze and Val’s mouth quirks upwards. She’d woken you up and you were an adorable mess of hair and doe eyes, similar to the images she’d sent you and a quick calculation told her it was about two thirty in the morning.

 

“Hi baby girl. Those were some naughty pictures you sent my way, hmm?” Val teases gently, watching pink flush up your cheeks as you yawn, exposing pale teeth and a pink tongue. Val grit her own teeth, her mind going somewhere she wouldn’t be for another day and a half.

 

“I’ll be home the day after tomorrow baby girl. Thor and I will be back and I promise that we can go down to Trondheim the next day and go to that lovely restaurant you like,” You hum happily, a smile tweaking your familiar mouth and Val misses you more than ever looking at your beautiful, sleepy features.

 

“I love you, baby,” You mumble, turning slightly into the pillow and her heart thuds violently at your words. She’s familiar with them but there’s something vulnerable about you murmuring the words as you practically dozed back to sleep.

 

“I love you more,” She murmurs, though she’s not sure you hear it as your breathing has slowed by the time she hangs up, staring again at the blank screen for a moment before she retreats back inside, trying to ignore the glowing warmth stealing at her cheeks.


	13. Orange Trees - M'baku

You weren’t sure quite how you’d ended up in what was apparently the all-female ass beating crew, minus the spider kid currently staring in awe at the group, but you’d picked the right time to teleport out beside Shuri. The kid grinned up at you, a savage smile that made your own stretch wider as you slid the custom blasters from your wrists down around your palms with soft clicks and a faint burst of energy.

 

She was terribly clever that one, and although you and Okoye guarded her sides, the two of you were merely precaution for the queen and for T’challa’s sake. It had been strange coming back, the doctor had vaguely explained what exactly was going on, with the last thing you remembered being Ramonda clutching at your arm before everything went dark. You wondered where the queen mother was, worry clenching your stomach briefly but you knew she was safe, wherever she had ended up and when you’d asked Okoye as all of you readied to portal out and you to teleport, she’d affirmed that the queen was safe. The relief you felt at the knowledge that Ramonda was safe, even after all this time and everything that had happened, surged through you, near replacing the adrenaline currently beginning to burn through your veins.

 

Flinging yourself into battle, you flashed easily in and out of existence via the portals you threw out, tossing one Shuri’s way as she ran into the thick of a group of Outriders and with a quick thought, you brought her to your side. The two of you had fought together before and had sparred enough times that you were familiar with the others technique, so much so that she knew to duck when you threw a portal over her head and impaled the outrider that stumbled into it a moment later. A new wave of the vile creatures were plummeting towards you, T’challa and his purple energy in their midst and you knocked your blasters together, powering them up with that same purple burst. The kinetic energy that Shuri had recreated and made sure for different redistribution than T’challa’s, in that way that his energy was almost a physical force, hers was sharp, burning energy.

 

A familiar figure rushed in front of the two of you, the leader of the border tribe with his broad shoulders and that furious, proud look to him as he scattered the gross alien creatures with a single sweeping blow. Shuri let out a low whistle and you reminded yourself you were in fact, mid-battle and launched a portal, flinging yourself through it to land on his vulnerable side, slicing several of the grotesque aliens into shards that gushed black blood as they fell around you. The broad-shouldered man behind you lets out a breath that shudders from his lungs and you go to turn around, to greet the one you knew was called M’baku when suddenly you were lurching forward as a heavy weight threw you off balance and there was a wet thunk and the beast that collapsed was close enough to you that you realised you’d been distracted enough that one had snuck up on you, and M’baku had saved you, as you’d just also saved him.

 

“Careful, little one,” His voice is a rumble that reminds you of dark chocolate and you meet his eyes finally. They’re warmer than you imagined, a twist of a smile and gentle cheeks that stretch as he speaks. For a big man, well muscled, broad-shouldered and battle weary, he has a softness to him, a sweetness that makes a warm flush descend through you as you hurl a portal up behind him, catching several of the oncoming horde and his face breaks into a grin again as the two of you turn together to meet the onslaught.

 

When it’s over, he finds you before you can find him, placing a warm hand on your shoulder to spin you around as you speak with one who introduced himself as Sam Wilson, a friend of the White Wolf’s. Sam’s smile is gentle and full of understanding as M’baku practically steals you away and you’re both startled and flattered at the same time as he does so. Okoye sends you a wink as you and M’baku pass her, Shuri practically writhing in her arms as she gapes at the sight of the two of you. T’challa’s eyes are warm when you find them, ducking your head in embarrassment as your cheeks flush and when you look back up at M’baku, he’s smiling fondly at you.

 

“I took the liberty of asking old T’challa who might the lovely Queen’s guard be and though he warned me that if I was to hurt you, he’d take my teeth, I’m willing to risk them. There’s a ferocity to you little one, that would suit you well in the Border Tribe and I want you to know that you are always welcome with us, with me,” The inclination is not lost on you and it stuns you into silence for a moment. He’s asking you to leave your life behind, one you’ve only just gotten back and one that will be so much different now. But then again, the way he makes you feel, even briefly in these last few moments, the way he affects you, no one else is like that for you.

 

“I need time,” You tell him, watching his face closely and your heart thuds as though his face falls, the smile remains. He will not push and you are glad for that and you make him aware that he’s most welcome to visit you in Wakanda whenever he feels like it, but you need to get your life back before you flip it upside down again.

 

You take your time, make him wait though not for any reason other than that you need the time to think, to recuperate and to understand what you’d missed. There was a lot that had happened since you’d turned to ash and you had a lot of catching up to do with your old friends. T’challa had become ash as well, both of your favourite siblings as out of time as you felt and you all lean on each other. M’baku visits you often, bringing you sweet oranges from the border and you teach him how to use the skins in cooking, the two of you often making meals together that T’challa, Shuri, Okoye and W’kabi join you to consume.

 

When you join the Border Tribe, there’s an easiness to leaving your home behind. M’baku has started to feel more and more like home as the months have past and when you finally leave your city behind, there’s no remorse, only hope. You know you’ve made the right choice as you sit together at dinner one cooler evening, his face bright in the light of the fire. M’baku is good, sweet and kind and he makes you laugh and he’s more than you could have ever asked for or wanted. And you love him, as you love Wakanda and as you love your people and friends and he loves you and until the sun sets in the east, the two of you will love each other.


	14. End of the Earth - Bucky Barnes

When it’s all over, when people on the street outside stop appearing from thin air in front of your very eyes, you find the energy to slide from your car and onto the ground to weep. It was a fright, the first person you’d seen had practically dropped from the sky to wander in front of your car and your heart had almost stopped the fright it had given you. The woman’s eyes had widened comically and as more people had stepped into existence, you’d turned the car off and clutched at yourself as everything flooded back. You remembered when they’d all disappeared, these must be them who’d vanished after the Titan Steve Rogers called Thanos had snapped his fingers, taking half the people you knew and Bucky, your Bucky away. Where they’d gone, you weren’t entirely sure and you recalled the distraught way you’d screamed at Steve, clawing at a shaky Rhodey to let you go as you begged him to tell you that Bucky was okay, that he was somehow wrong and that your boyfriend was going to round the corner with that gentle half smile and wrap you into his arms.

 

He never did. And for the past five years, you’d been so sure he never would again that the mere realisation that Bucky could have been returned to you, both frightened and excited you beyond belief. Bucky had found you after the fall of HYDRA and by extent, SHIELD when you’d been working in a coffee shop he had begun to frequent. You’d discovered his sweet tooth not long after and from that had bloomed a tentative friendship. It had bloomed slowly, cautiously, into the possibility of something else and there weren’t many days when you didn’t see him in one form or the other.

 

When the remnants of HYDRA had come looking, Bucky had realised the possibility of the collusion between the two of you and made the choice to take you with him. You remembered that day well, you hadn’t even known he’d known your address but when you’d seen the metal of his arm, you’d known that you had to trust him. You did, even then, inexplicably trust Bucky and had taken his outstretched hand without much hesitation to grab a suitcase and fill it with everything essential before you’d let the landlord downstairs know you weren’t coming back and though he’d looked ready to argue about giving you back your bond, Bucky had come to hulk over your shoulder and he’d handed you the envelope without much more delay.

 

You had slept through most of the ride to Dulles and barely been conscious for the entire boarding process and Bucky had had to practically urge you forwards as you had lazily allowed yourself to be guided onto the plane and into the window seat. You’d trusted him and the fear that had begun to coalesce in your belly shrank every time the two of you touched, the heat that burned up your fingers reminiscent of lovely winter fire. You’d fallen asleep not long after the plane had taken off, head heavy on Bucky’s shoulder and he, after pressing a fond kiss to your forehead, had followed not long after.

 

You remembered what it had been like to not understand anything that was going on in Romania when you’d first landed, but Bucky had known, he’d spoken soft directions as he’d tried not to wake you, not knowing you were already awake and listening to his heart beat gently within his chest. You recalled how peaceful Romania had been, markets and coffee, sweet fruit and quiet sunset talks on rooftops. You’d fallen in love with him there, true love that felt both weight and limitless and you remembered kissing him once you’d finally realised you did and how much you wanted to do that forever and always with him.

 

Bucky had admitted he loved you before they’d put him under ice after he and Steve had vanished for some days and you’d been a nervous wreck under Natasha’s watchful eye. You could still hear the infliction of the words, the gentle twist of your heart and the warmth that had flooded you moments later, blush rising to peach on your cheeks.

 

When you’d found out he’d been amongst the people that had vanished, for a long time you’d been inconsolable. Steve had made the decision to move you into the compound, not trusting that you’d be okay or even safe on your own, he worried about you more than he needed to but it was nice that someone cared that much. It had been good for you to stay with them all, you’d met so many heroes and all of them had been overwhelmingly kind and good and you found them all astonishingly easy to be around, despite the hero status. You got along terribly well with Carol Danvers and James Rhodes, the two being constant companions of yours and you’d even made work on the frosty Nebula, who after a few years had begun to thaw to your constant outpouring of warmth. Nat and you had a warm friendship, both of you quiet in your own ways but that didn’t mean you couldn’t be quiet together, whether she was tossing knives as you read books to her, or her teaching you to throw aforementioned knives, the two of you were a solid female partnership. Steve and you were the closest though, both of you had a friendship that was in a way reliance on the other, like you had to protect the other from everything because both of you knew that if Bucky returned to something having happened to either one of you, he would be as you had been in the beginning. He’d told you to head out this morning, light and airily enough that you’d known that they were up to something but you’d obeyed the order, finding yourself here and now, with everyone appearing as they were now, you knew your friends had been successful.

 

By the time you reached the compound, it had been entirely destroyed but so had the creatures that had done so. You spilt from the car, already calling to FRIDAY to let you in and help you find everyone, her voice oddly stilted even for an AI and your stomach clenched at the possible implications.

 

Practically stumbling in on them all, more people than you could have ever dreamed of seeing in a room and so many that you weren’t sure you knew them all, you were wide-eyed staring for a moment. And then he was there before you could blink you were in his arms, in a tight embrace that smelled distractingly familiar. He always smelled the same, like saltwater and snow and you clung to him, your tears dampening his shoulder and you could feel his own on your opposite shoulder and you release him, those same tears still staining his cheeks and you wipe them away with gentle fingers, a smile breaking through the tears and you’re both smiling at each other, overwhelmingly warm as the two of you stand in each other’s embrace.

 

And then there’s Steve loping over, covered in blood and dirt and startlingly wielding Mjolnir, Thor’s famous hammer and he grimaces as you stare between him and the hammer before he wraps the two of you in a tight hug. You rest your head briefly on his shoulder, inhaling his scent of blood and the lingering smell of electricity that clings to him ever so faintly.

 

“Tony’s injured, we’re all on standby so make sure you get introduced to everyone- you too Buck, no sneaking off. The Intergalactic Avengers Initiative, that’s what Tony’s calling it and there are so many people wandering around. Strange’s portalling everyone extra home, but we’re tryna work out where we’re gonna keep everyone till then- Nat and Clint are tryna work out if they can get everyone into Strange’s sanctum, the space crew and Thor are heading off soon so we don’t have to worry about leaving rooms for them-” Steve is frazzled energy and though you’re grateful for it, it’s a lot. Bucky looks to be feeling the same but that doesn’t stop either of you from heading over and into the crowd. Danvers catches your shoulder, winking at you gorgeously as she shakes Bucky’s hand and sends you a conspiratorial grin from over his shoulder as she draws someone introduced to you as Valkyrie closer to her. Sam hugs you tightly to him and then Thor is there, all glorious hair and bright grin and he’s got friends to introduce. Bucky’s fingers remain in yours whilst the two of you mingle and though you’re growing weary of it, you don’t know when you’ll see all these people again. Bucky introduces you again to T’challa, Shuri, Okoye and M’baku, dear friends who all embrace you tightly and by the time they step through their own portal, you’ve been invited several times over to Wakanda, Shuri slipping you a palm-held device with instructions to let her know when you need to ride.

 

The youngest, a boy with a shock of brown hair and a slender awkwardness to him stands back alone as everyone else chatters, Wanda, wrapping you tightly in a hug before you can escape to speak with him and when you do catch his eyes, he moves towards you. Bucky lets you head over to greet him, though you can feel his eyes on your back as you pull the little one into your arms. He’s not much shorter than you so he’s technically not the little one but he’s young, young and when you hug him, he’s shaking a little.

 

“Honey we’re so proud of you,” You say into his ear, Steve had told you who he was, Carol had decided she was going adopt him and Valkyrie, who hadn’t left Carol’s arm, had giggled that they just might. He’s small, dressed in a Stark made suit and you’re without a doubt that he’s one of those that vanished, the almost haunted look that gleams in his soft eyes gives him away.

 

“You got family? I’ve got a phone you can use honey, if that’s what you’re worried about,” His shoulders sink slightly as he relaxes and you know then that you were right about what was bothering him. You don’t leave after you hand him your phone, you know he might need to company and as the phone rings, your fingers lace into his. He’s trembling still, just slightly but as the phone rings on and on, it increases until you hear the ringing stop and a voice speaks. Peter’s crying before you even realise whoever he’s called has answered and your grip on his fingers tightens briefly. You wonder briefly who he’s called but it doesn’t matter, because the shaking that’s swept through his body has subsided and soft, sweet tears of relief are pooling in his eyes. You don’t leave Peter until he’s finished with his phone calls, he makes two and when he’s done, he practically collapses into your arms. You’ve forgotten what it’s like to be this young, this small and already so world-weary, you can’t imagine how he’s feeling.

 

“I’m heading off soon, I’ll drive you home honey. I’ll take you past my apartment first, so you can get cleaned up and we can eat then I’ll take you home, okay?” He nods, his thanks mumbled into your shoulder. You stroke his hair fondly, letting him rest his weight on you and then Bucky’s there, a gentle smile lapsing onto his face as he takes in the sight of the kid clutching you as though you’re the one holding the world.

 

“I’m taking him home, you’re coming with us. Steve and Sam are welcome too, I can drop by where Stephen said the Sanctum was. I presume Rhodey’s going to hang by Stark for a while, but tell him if he needs a ride, he just has to ask,” Bucky nods, his eyes warm as his fingers brush yours and you and Peter move together to trail after him to join the others. Peter doesn’t leave your side much, though Carol embraces him warmly and Valkyrie wraps him into a gentle hug, telling him he did so well and you’re so proud of this kid.

 

When the five of you eventually break free and manage to pile into your car, Peter gets shotgun after you glare at the boys, all of whom are too tired to argue with you and pile into the back. They all doze off quickly enough and nearly don’t arise for your drive-thru run, though Peter and his spidey senses prevail as he jerks from sleep as you make the turn off into with a startled chant of ‘McDonald’s, McDonald’s, McDonald’s,’ which arises those in the back and soon everyone’s chanting along with Peter as you come up to the window.

 

You reach Brooklyn in record time, just under two hours with traffic that makes you want to gouge your eyes out at some intersections but for the most part, it’s a clear run. Your apartment block is quiet as you get the three super soldiers inside, you practically have to shake Peter awake as he’s fallen into such a deep sleep in the forty minutes since you made a rubbish stop to fling the waste from the takeout into bins. They all shower and you’re relieved that most of the boys are similar sizes as Steve, Sam and Bucky all fit into the clothes Bucky has at yours. Peter fits into a pair of your bigger track pants and one of your University hoodies, both of which smell faintly like Surf and he dozes off again after you feed him again, worried that he’s probably got an insane metabolism like Bucky and Steve do.

 

The drive to Queens is louder than the one back from Albany, Peter is more awake and so are the three in the back though Bucky’s not in a particularly chatty mood, his fingers linger on the back of your neck the entire ride as Steve and Sam bicker teasingly. Peter invites you all into his apartment and its there that you meet Aunt May, who clasps you in a fierce hug that doesn’t quite match her small stature but you allow yourself to be bear hugged all the same. Steve, Bucky and Sam receive the same treatment before you all depart, making sure Peter and May both have your number before you do and promise to pop in for tea sometime. Peter clings to you in a hug before you do leave and you tell him he’s always welcome to come around to your apartment if he wants help with his homework before you follow the boys out with one final wave.

 

The Sanctum is on Bleecker Street and you practically fling Sam and Steve out there, both promising to be around in the morning as they trudge to knock and you wave to Stephen as Bucky puts his window up, his fingers coming to rest briefly on yours as you downshift and with a prolonged press on the horn, you and Bucky are shooting into the sunset.

 

Your apartment feels remarkably empty after having so many people in it earlier but you’re glad for the peace that you and Bucky dissolve into. His fingers hook around your waist as the two of you practically collapse onto the couch, making you practically sandwich against him. He smells better than, thank goodness and you curl into him as his arms wrap around you.

 

“You were good with the kid, he had a tough ride and he’s only young,” You nod into his chest, your fingers splayed over his sternum and other hand against the side of his neck, toying with loose strands and he sighs gently at the feeling. He’s just like you remembered him, the toughness of his flesh giving way to the softness residing beneath and when you begin to press feathery kisses to his throat, he giggles at the sensation and you snicker as you continue to tickle him. When Bucky’s mouth finds yours, it’s familiar again and you kiss him gently, letting him kiss you as fiercely as he wants, your body pliant beneath his touch and his hands squeeze your hips.

 

“Is he Stark’s protegee?” You ask, breathless as his mouth works down the column of your neck. You arch against him briefly, groaning and he chuckles, his pupils blown wide as you wrap your legs around his waist like a spider monkey.

 

“I don’t know baby, I’ve only met him a few times and we’ve never really had the chance to chat,” His hands are everywhere and you duck to nip at his throat, planting open-mouthed kisses as you do and then the timer dings from the kitchen and you’re practically tumbling from his arms onto the floor to sprint into the kitchen.

 

“My spinach puffs,” You squawk, he won’t get the reference but at least you get a giggle out of it as you drag the lasagne out of the oven and dump it onto a chopping board as it steams angrily at you. Bucky’s there again, wandering in behind you to wrap his arms around your waist. He draws you into him and you snicker to feel his half-mast press against you, turning your head to place a kiss on his jaw and he growls low in his throat.

 

It’s later when everything is a tangle of sheets and limbs and you’re still getting your breath back that he says it again.

 

“I love you,” He murmurs as he drags you into his chest, the cold of his metal arm a comfort around your waist against the furnace that is the rest of him and you crush back into him, a content noise slipping from your lips.

 

“And I love you,” You sing back to him, kissing him drowsily and his arms tighten again protectively before the two of you doze off.


	15. True - Wanda Maximoff

When she rose, she rose with a defiance that made you smile. Your red-haired angel, brilliant and awe-inspiring in her strength and she was right there, after five years gone and everything you’d ever felt about and for her came flooding back. She was beautiful in her power, red stained magic seeping from her very pores as she rose to meet the Titan, her eyes flames as her fingers burned with that familiar energy. Wanda flexed her fingers, the energy warping as it wrapped itself around Thanos, cloaking him in red and you flung yourself towards him as Rhodey turned to fire rounds at the Titan. The swell of Avengers and others alike that swarmed around you made your ears buzz as the armies of Thanos continued their assault towards you all, their master writhing in agony as several entities turned their power on him.

 

“Rain fire,” The Titan roared and you heard him over the blood in your ears and you realised what was about to happen. Who he was speaking to was beyond you, but that didn’t matter now because your girlfriend was in the firing line and she was doubtlessly Thanos’ target.

 

“Wanda,” Your voice broke through the din, catching her attention as you launched yourself into the air, metal wings snapping out and you landed close enough to her that when the hulking great ship above you all did indeed rain fire, Wanda remained beneath the cover of your wings, still holding Thanos tightly in the grasp of her powers. When Stark slammed his repulser energy down on the Titan, you could see him begin to crack under the pressure, Steve and Thor not far behind with twin hammers and Thor with his lightning that crackled as it shot past you and then Carol was there, with her flaming fists and the blinding burn of power made you near shrink back, Wanda standing strong beside you and she’s unwavering in her prolonged assault. Waves of red prickle through your vision, the crimson leeching and staining as it slips through the air as though it was liquid, folding and tumbling and seeking.

 

When the Mad Titan finally collapses, his body stilling and his flesh crumbling, your eyes find those of Bruce Banner’s, the glove slipping from his grip as he too falls. Wanda is there a moment later, clinging to you as you pull her into your arms, her weight easy and warm against you as the two of you fold into each other. She smells vaguely like grass and like your laundry detergent, it probably still clings to some of her garments even after all this time and though you don’t want to burst into tears quite yet, your eyes are heavy with tears that brim on your lashes. Her fingers did into you as she clutches you to her, tight enough that they hurt but you cling to her all the same, as though you’ll shatter if you release your grip. She’s crying, you realise a moment later as you hear her sniffle close to your ear. Wanda is still almost rigid in your grasp, all slender limbs and sharp angles and though you’re shaking, she is strong and unyielding beside you. 

 

A warm hand on your shoulder brings your head up and Carol’s soft features slip into view, a tad blurry through your tears and a gentle smile works her mouth. She’s speaking, you realise but you can’t make out the words for the life of you. Wanda can and she’s leading you both after Carol who seems to be picking up the strays as she strides through the masses. Wanda doesn’t release your hand, even when you’re amongst all of the others and the both of you are overwhelmingly safe, Sam flinging arms around both of you and a tearful Clint is not far behind. For a while, it seems like everyone you know comes up and throws themselves into your arms, Steve, Scott, Carol and Okoye with the fiercest hugs and then Tony, limping but still with a wry grin on his lips as he and Pepper embrace Wanda and you separately and then swap, the almost nostalgic parental feeling of the two a warm escape. 

 

Later, when you’re finally alone, Wanda cries again. Soft tears that burn into your shoulder as she buries her sorrow in your skin. You lie together, her body cocooned by your warmth, her head turned into your chest and her hands still gripping yours between them. Quietly you thank the universe that she’s back, the one you missed more than any other and you’re more than glad that she’s the same, the same Wanda that left you all those years ago, eyes wide with an almost relief as she collapses into nothing over you, you who she believed to be dying. She’s showered and now smells like jasmine again, the sweetness of the shampoo reaching your nostrils as she curls into you again. Wanda is far from the pillar of strength she was on the battlefield but you’re glad she can be weak around you, glad she draws strength from you as she snuggles herself into you. She feels smaller in your arms, more delicate and you bring her close to your chest, pressing a fond kiss to the top of her head. Jasmine teases your nostrils and you close your eyes to the world then, allowing yourself to sink into the very scent of your lover.


	16. To Be Human - Tony Stark

When you first met Tony Stark, you weren’t sure you’d ever want to even see him again. He’d been off his face drunk, stumbling around in a clunky gold and red suit of armour and he’d wolf-whistled, loudly at you as he’d lumbered past, half turning to watch you as you didn’t slow, ignore his gaze and his grotesque comments. The day you succumbed to cat-calling and common vile behaviours was your last day and Tony Stark was quick to realise that. He’d sent you flowers, cards, chocolates, strawberries, anything to catch your attention until finally, you’d picked up your cell long enough to tell him to go fuck himself. That did stop him, for a while. Unfortunately, Tony’s list of contacts encumbered your own so it felt like you saw him at every charity gala, every ball and every televised event.

 

He finally stole your attention, and then your heart after he’d interrupted a rather malicious gentleman and after Tony had done away with your drink citing he didn’t think it was safe, you’d allowed a conversation with him. He’d been everything you’d thought he would be, a chaotic mix of charming and madness, with an overwhelming kindness and a sense of humour that kept you preoccupied for most of the evening. You’d let him pursue you after that, knowing that he’d soon become distracted by another but when he didn’t, and the two of you had been an almost thing for a few years, you wondered if he was it for you.

 

He’d married you after the blip, after he’d stumbled into your arms as Carol looked on and you’d clung to his frame that didn’t feel like him anymore. You’d given the bridesmaid jobs to Carol and Nebula, the two women who you were most grateful for when it came to Tony and Nat, your maid of honour, the one who’d supported you through it all. Steve had walked you down the aisle and you’d caught Rhodey’s eye with a warm fondness from Tony’s side. Despite everything, the blip, losing Peter and nearly everyone you held dear, you two had made it. Until you wouldn’t.

 

“We won Mr Stark, you did it, sir. You did it,” It felt like you’d only just got him back and now, now you had to lose him again. But the possibility of permanence was something that overwhelmed you as you sunk to your knees beside Peter, fingers trembling as they found your lover’s, his own were shaking impossibly but the hand you clasped was fiercely warm. The other one, with the glove still falling from it, was blackened, singed by the powers of the very universe and that blackness scorched a path up Tony’s arm and shoulder and had begun to spread across his jaw. You knew if you lifted his shirt you’d see the dark trails had found his reactor, his heart and his lungs and though you weren’t sure how deep the burning went, you knew you were losing him to it. 

 

“It’s okay Tones, you can let go. You can let go now,” Your voice sounds foreign, even to yourself and there’s a definite hollowness to it that you can’t shake. Peter is shuddering beside you, weeping as he clings both to Tony and to you and you close your eyes briefly, blocking everything out but the feel of Tony’s fingers in your own and the warmth of Peter against you, the strange comfort that keeps you from shivering horribly. You don’t want to lose him, you don’t want to have to say goodbye and it feels like you only just got him back, the real Tony and the happiness that the two of you once shared. 

 

For a while, Tony wasn’t yours, his mind was always away from you and although you tried desperately not to let that get to you, it always had, worming its way into your heart and planting seeds of doubt. When he’d come back, he’d been different for a while and then, when it seemed nothing could be done, truly, he seemed to return to you. When he’d worked it all out, you’d known then that he was going everything for this, for his friends and comrades. And you’d let him, you’d let him every single time because if it meant he’d be happy, he’d make his friends happy and the world happy, you were willing to give up your Tony. You couldn’t think of your daughter, of the way she’d look at you when you told her later what had happened and the realisation that you’d both lost him, your daughter, her father and you, your husband, your lover and soulmate. 

 

“I love you,” His voice cracks too and you’re filled with ice as the tears come, burning hot as they spill down your cheeks. His own tears soak rivets into the ruined skin of his jaw and when you meet Tony’s eyes, the light in them is growing dim. The sob that shakes you makes his fingers sputter in your grasp, tightening briefly to squeeze you one last time and you close your eyes again, leaning to press your forehead against his own. His breath rattles and you grit your teeth against the onslaught of grief. He’s fading fast and for a moment, you wonder if he’d take it back but you know he would never. No matter what, Tony was too good even for this world and you knew that without him, they wouldn’t have won, they wouldn’t have even got anywhere close. 

 

When he slips away, you wonder for a moment if you’ll be able to breathe again because it feels like you’re underwater and nothing makes sense. When Steve lifts Tony, as though he weighs nothing, you watch. There’s an ugly hatred boiling within you, cursing the day that Steve Rogers came into yours and Tony’s lives but you know it’s selfish and that Tony would hate for you to still have venom towards Steve. He was trying to do what was right, as usual. But right for Steve Rogers went hand in hand with Tony getting the short end of the stick and though you’d never vocalise it, you can only watch grimly as Steve carries your lover away.


	17. Life is Strange - Gamora

She was yours and yet, she wasn’t. The moment you’d laid eyes on the past Gamora, you’d known that something wasn’t right. If it was just the lack of recognition or the fierce bitterness of the old Gamora, you would have been okay with it but looking into her eyes and not recognising the person you were looking at was the hardest thing you’d ever had to do. Eyes that were normally warm with affection, soft and gentle just for you that were hardened shards of ice now, without warmth or love or anything for you, other than brief curiosity as Nebula stiffened beside her. Nebula’s eyes found yours, filling with a sadness that was deeper than just pity and you quirked your mouth wryly, what else could you do? It was months before you’d even meet Gamora back in her timeline and even then, it was a while longer before you could openly affirm that you’d fallen in love with her and her with you. 

 

But the familiar eyes you had just met were not the eyes you’d fallen in love with, they were the eyes you’d met in a prison cell as curiosity drowned your expression and you’d felt your heart rate pick up faintly beneath the prison garb. Quill had nudged you, quite obviously and you’d smacked his arm, turning to glare at him as he’d grinned at you smugly and you’d missed your blaster then, for if you’d had it you would have blown him backward. The two of you had fought together for the first time in the cafeteria, you’d sent Drax sprawling and she’d met your eyes, something like surprise glittering in her cool gaze. Gamora had said thank you a while later, you standing up for her and even going into battle mode had saved her life, though she gave it little value. You’d shrugged the gratitude off, uncaring that she thought it was a big deal (it wasn’t, not to you) and told her that you thought she was too pretty to die so young. Gamora had flushed and you’d grinned at her, pleased with yourself that you’d made the badass assassin blush. She’d made you swear not to tell anyone and though you laughed at the time, you never did bring it up again.

 

Your friendship with Nebula had gotten you both through Gamora’s death, the knowledge that unlike the fallen, she wasn’t coming back. But you’d lost friends, dear friends, Groot and Peter amongst them and new friends too, Tony Stark’s kid and the wizard. Tony had told the two of you all about his other friends as the three of you drifted, you’d been the first to succumb to the nothingness as Peter’s ship sailed aimlessly through quadrants and zones, but you remembered the stories. When Carol Danvers picked you all up, dropped back on Tony’s Earth, Peter’s Earth too, you’d thought numbly, you got to meet those friends. Steve, Nat, Clint, Rhodey, Bruce and Thor. Then Pepper, who’d lent you clothes and helped you brush out your hair. 

 

Over the past five years, you’d learnt to both miss someone terribly, so terribly and at the same time, cherish everything about the time you’d spent with them. You hadn’t moved on essentially, though you and Carol had spent enough time together that you could say you had begun to but then, looking into Gamora’s eyes as you were now put you straight back to square one. 

 

“Is this her?” Gamora sounded like herself, if warier but it was doubtless her. You couldn’t even remember clearly what the old her, the ‘before the guardians’ her had been like and it made your insides squeeze. 

 

“Yes, this is y/n,” You almost flinch at the introduction, remembering her nickname for you and that you’d never be called that ever again but it doesn’t matter. You’re overwhelmed by the situation but not enough that you aren’t beyond relieved that somehow, some form of Gamora has survived and that meant more than anything else to you. Her legacy would live on and clearly, even then, she was more than willing to go against her father for her sister, for any better cause. You’d missed her strength, her drive and the power that sizzled just beneath her skin, interwoven in her bones and muscle. She had always been electric, Gamora had never just been beautiful outwardly and seeing her now brought back a wash of repressed emotion that surged within you like an angry tidal wave.

 

“I’m sorry,” Nebula says quietly, her fingers finding yours and she slips her hand into your own, the cool of your respective flesh colliding and you let your mouth twist up slightly. There’s a wryness to the smile you manage at her and you can tell from her gaze that she sees right through it but that’s okay.

 

“It was never your fault Nebs, it couldn’t be helped,” Nebula’s face is sad, her eyes knowing and briefly they depart your face to flick to Gamora, who is watching the interaction with an odd look to her. She looks as though she’s ready to say something but she’s not quite sure and you have an inkling of what it might be just from the look on her face.

 

“Nebula said we loved each other,” Oh. And there it was. You nodded, pressing your tongue to the roof of your mouth in an attempt to slow the tears that had begun to burn at your eyes. You’re not quite sure you can even form a sentence but it doesn’t matter, because she’s speaking again, her voice quaking slightly as her eyes find the tears stinging your eyes.

 

“I can stay here, if you want. We can try again, if it wasn’t going to hurt you too much,” Your lungs feel like they’re empty for a moment as you meet her eyes, the familiar gaze open and watching you for your reaction. When you nod, almost shyly, Gamora’s mouth twitches up into something like a smile. Nebula relaxes beside you and her grip on your hand eases up as Gamora draws closer, as if to inspect you and as she draws closer, your heart skips in your chest. She’s Gamora, yours and the past’s in every way, only missing the tiny scar beneath her lip and for a moment, all you can do is stare at her mouth, as though somehow that tiny scar is going to reappear and she might be exactly yours again.

 

But it never does. But that doesn’t matter because together, you two head to join the others, Peter, Groot, Drax and Mantis amongst them and Nebula, a few paces back, smiles to herself. This was the end of all the endings and though you were longsuffering, the way you looked at Gamora hadn’t changed. And Nebula couldn’t have been happier for the two of you, watching as you speak quietly and a smile blossoms on your face, Gamora sharing its warmth a moment later and she knows.


End file.
